How to Use Sisyphus in a Sentence

Sisyphus

noun
  • Oh, there’s more than a bit of Sisyphus rolling the rock uphill here.
    — Teri Sforza, Oc Register, 12 Jan. 2026
  • Every time Sisyphus neared the crest, the rock rolled back down to the bottom.
    — Bryan West, USA TODAY, 2024-04-23
  • Ben’s comment about Sisyphus the night before rattled around in my head.
    — Hazlitt, 2024-12-03
  • The research and drug discovery had been like Sisyphus, back and forth and back and forth.
    — Courtney Crowder, USA Today, 10 Apr. 2026
  • The Sisyphus Session adds mental toughness to that mix.
    — Mario Fraioli, Outside Online, 2021-09-24
  • To a universe that stays silent in response to our best designs, Sisyphus gives the middle finger.
    — B. R. Cohen, Longreads, 13 Jan. 2026
  • Surviving birds, making their way back to the roof, got caught and tunnelled again; think Sisyphus but with bullets.
    — Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 2023-10-24
  • Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus.
    — Erika Landström, Artforum, 2 June 2026
  • The garbageman is Sisyphus, a… Subscribe or log in to continue reading.
    — Pablo Strauss, Harpers Magazine, 26 May 2026
  • In the Greek story of Sisyphus, the king was condemned for eternity to move a massive rock up a hill but never reach the summit.
    — Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 2025-01-22
  • Paul would be some form of Sisyphus pushing the boulder up a hill in the underworld, and perhaps Danny is the reason why the boulder keeps coming down.
    — Max Gao, Harper's BAZAAR, 2023-04-28
  • The song may be six minutes long, but the circuitous lope of his acoustic-guitar strum and low throb of his warbling feel eternal, like the type of tune Sisyphus might have hummed to keep himself company.
    — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025
  • Raymond acknowledged he’s faced with a herculean task – not unlike Sisyphus rolling the boulder up the hill at Tartarus in Greek mythology.
    — Rick Jervis, USA Today, 10 Aug. 2025
  • Kevin Hayden, the Sisyphus of Suffolk County, says his people will keep pushing the boulder that is gun violence up the city on a hill.
    — Globe Columnist, BostonGlobe.com, 2023-03-21
  • Belly’s response is meant to come off sweet, but instead is both withering and accurate, because no 10-year-old should be that familiar with the myth of Sisyphus or the curse of endless toil.
    — Thomas Page, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Jeff Probst reminds Mike White of Sisyphus, the mythological king cursed to spend eternity trying, and failing, to push an enormous boulder up a steep slope.
    — David Canfield, Vanity Fair, 20 Jan. 2026
  • There’s so much vying for your attention, including a Sisyphus figure in the background rolling his interminable burden up and down an incline, that the maskwork that comes into play can begin to feel like Brechtian overkill.
    — Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 18 Mar. 2026
  • In a compelling essay, the French existentialist Albert Camus argued that Sisyphus' defiant embrace of his fate transformed his labors into a source of meaning — and even joy.
    — William Falk, The Week, 2023-09-02
  • Consider Albert Camus’ Sisyphus.
    — Shai Tubali, Big Think, 5 Aug. 2025
  • The first — Nietzsche’s 1881 Eternal Recurrence — is a life test by design, echoing Camus’ Sisyphus.
    — Shai Tubali, Big Think, 5 Aug. 2025
  • This Sisyphus of Silicon Valley is on the front lines of a rapidly expanding industry of robot trainers, preparing to teach and operate the army of humanoid robots scheduled to march out of nearby factories in the coming year.
    — Los Angeles Times, 31 May 2026
  • Set against a stunning backdrop inspired by Ancient Greece, from boulder-rolling challenges inspired by Sisyphus to tense encounters with Medusa’s gaze, every quest determines the players that earn the strategic power to decide who visits Pandora’s Box.
    — Leo Barraclough, Variety, 8 Oct. 2025
  • In Venice, François Ozon debuted a take on Albert Camus’ The Stranger, the notoriously philosophical text about a French Algerian settler and the myth of Sisyphus.
    — Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 23 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'Sisyphus.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: