Pythagorean

From Latin Pȳthagorēus (“pertaining to Pythagoras”) +‎ -an. Compare Pythagoric.

• IPA^(key): /pɪˌθaɡəˈɹiːən/

Pythagorean (plural Pythagoreans)

1. A follower of Pythagoras; someone who believes in or advocates Pythagoreanism. [from 16th c.]
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 268:

     Plato could still speak the language of archaic myth. He could speak it, because he was a Pythagorean, and myth was their technical language.

   • 2021, Andrea Nightingale, Philosophy and Religion in Plato's Dialogues, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 137:

     Plato clearly distinguished the Orphics and the Pythagoreans.

Pythagorean (comparative more Pythagorean, superlative most Pythagorean)

1. Pertaining to Pythagoras or his philosophy. [from 16th c.]

   Synonym: (rare) Pythagoric

2. Following the lifestyle advocated by the Pythagoreans; specifically, vegetarian. [from 17th c.]

• Neopythagoreanism, Neo-Pythagoreanism