odyssey

odyssey — noun

1. a long trip or period of life filled with twists, hardships, and meaningful expe

1.nounC2
Definition

a long trip or period of life filled with twists, hardships, and meaningful experiences — used for both real travel, like a refugee's flight across borders, and inner journeys, like years of searching for one's identity.

Example

Marco's six-month odyssey across South America began with a one-way bus ticket to Lima.

pattern: [name]'s + [duration] + odyssey + across [place]

Anya's recovery from the car crash became a painful odyssey of surgery and physical therapy.

figurative: odyssey of [hardship + growth]

Common collocations
  • personal odyssey
  • spiritual odyssey
  • long odyssey
  • epic odyssey
  • ten-year odyssey
Synonyms
  • journey

    neutral and general; 'odyssey' adds drama, length, and emotional weight

  • quest

    emphasises a clear goal being pursued; 'odyssey' emphasises the eventful path itself

  • pilgrimage

    carries spiritual or devotional purpose; 'odyssey' is broader and need not be religious

  • adventure

    highlights excitement and risk; 'odyssey' is longer and often life-changing

Antonyms
  • errand

    a short, routine task — opposite in length and significance

Grammar Patterns

a/an + (adjective) + odyssey

odyssey + through/across/of

Usage Note

Mildly literary and slightly formal — common in journalism, memoir, and biography rather than everyday speech. Tone is usually positive even when the journey is hard: it suggests the experience was meaningful and shaped the person. Avoid for short or routine trips.

Common Mistakes

My odyssey to the supermarket took ten minutes.
My quick trip to the supermarket took ten minutes.
'odyssey' implies a long, eventful journey, not a short errand.
The flight was a boring odyssey.
The flight was a boring journey.
'odyssey' suggests adventure or struggle, so 'boring odyssey' clashes with its meaning.

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

All five words describe travel from one point to another, but they differ in length, purpose, and emotional weight. 'Journey' is the neutral, everyday word and works for any trip, short or long. 'Adventure' adds excitement and a sense of risk, but it can be brief — a weekend hike counts. 'Quest' is goal-driven: the traveller is searching for a specific thing, like a missing brother or a cure. 'Pilgrimage' implies a spiritual or devotional purpose, often to a holy place. 'Odyssey' is the heaviest of the set: long, eventful, full of twists, and usually life-shaping. We say 'a weekend journey to Hualien' but 'a ten-year odyssey through addiction and recovery' — the second carries weight the first cannot.

odyssey ↗journey ↗quest ↗pilgrimageadventure ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • odyssey of self-discovery
  • odyssey of suffering
  • odyssey of survival

Phrases

  • a personal odyssey
  • a spiritual odyssey
  • an emotional odyssey
  • an epic odyssey
  • a four-year odyssey
  • a long odyssey home

Prepositions

  • odyssey through
  • odyssey across
  • odyssey of
  • odyssey from ... to ...

Etymology

GreekLatinEnglish

Borrowed in the early 1600s from Latin 'Odyssea', itself from Greek 'Odysseia' — the title of Homer's ancient epic about the hero Odysseus, who spent ten years sailing home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, surviving storms, monsters, and lost crews. The poem's tale of a long, eventful homecoming gave English a common noun for any drawn-out journey full of twists and trials, used both for real travel and for inner or career-long struggles.