Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of five elected magistrates exercising a supervisory power over the kings of Sparta.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of a body of magistrates common to many ancient Dorian constitutions, the most celebrated being that of the Spartans, among whom the board of ephors consisted of five members, and was elected yearly by the people unrestrictedly from among themselves.
  • noun In modern Greece, an overseer or superintendent of public works.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Gr. Antiq.) A magistrate; one of a body of five magistrates chosen by the people of ancient Sparta. They exercised control even over the king.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun historical One of the five annually-elected senior magistrates in various Doric states, especially ancient Sparta, who oversaw the actions of Spartan kings.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin ephorus, from Greek ephoros, from ephorān, to oversee : ep-, epi-, epi- + horān, to see; see wer- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἔφορος (ephoros, "overseer") (< Homeric ἐπίουρος), from ἐπί (epi, "over") + ὁράω (oraō, "look").

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Examples

  • He was present as ephor, in accordance with the custom which obliges two members of that board to serve on all military expeditions with the king, and with his colleague shared the political views represented by

    Hellenica 2007

  • Stadium; when Endius was ephor at Sparta, and Pythodorus archon at

    Hellenica 2007

  • Lacedaemonians, however, refused to give up the Boeotian alliance — the party of Xenares the ephor, and such as shared their view, carrying the day upon this point — but renewed the oaths at the request of Nicias, who feared to return without having accomplished anything and to be disgraced; as was indeed his fate, he being held the author of the treaty with Lacedaemon.

    The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides 2005

  • In the thirteenth year of the reign of Darius, while Alexippidas was ephor at Lacedaemon, a convention was concluded in the plain of the Maeander by the Lacedaemonians and their allies with

    The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides 2005

  • With these words he, as ephor, himself put the question to the assembly of the Lacedaemonians.

    The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides 2005

  • Foteini Zafeiropoulou is ephor emerita of antiquities in the Greek Archaeological Service.

    Warriors of Paros 2005

  • Epitadeus happening to be ephor, a man of great influence, and of a willful, violent spirit, on some occasion of a quarrel with his son, proposed a decree, that all men should have liberty to dispose of their land by gift in their lifetime, or by their last will and testament.

    The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Plutarch 2003

  • Lysander, who was still ephor, resolving to be revenged on

    The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Plutarch 2003

  • The same ephor asked him, whether now at least he did not repent his rashness.

    The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Plutarch 2003

  • He gave it out also, that he was to continue ephor the ensuing year.

    The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans Plutarch 2003

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