Pandora's box

noun

: a prolific source of troubles

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The god Prometheus stole fire from heaven to give to the human race, which originally consisted only of men. To punish humanity, the other gods created the first woman, the beautiful Pandora. As a gift, Zeus gave her a box, which she was told never to open. However, as soon as he was out of sight she took off the lid, and out swarmed all the troubles of the world, never to be recaptured. Only Hope was left in the box, stuck under the lid. Anything that looks ordinary but may produce unpredictable harmful results can thus be called a Pandora's box.

Examples of Pandora's box in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Advances in technology have opened an exciting possibility or perhaps stirred a Pandora's box. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 15 Oct. 2024 Meta's plan to generate synthetic content tailored to individual users — which attracted little notice this week amid a slew of product announcements — opens a whole new Pandora's box in an AI world already full of them. Ina Fried, Axios, 27 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

from the box, sent by the gods to Pandora, which she was forbidden to open and which loosed a swarm of evils upon humankind when she opened it out of curiosity

First Known Use

1579, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of Pandora's box was in 1579

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Cite this Entry

“Pandora's box.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Pandora%27s%20box. Accessed 30 Mar. 2025.

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