dwarf

UK/dwɔːf//dwɔɹf/

dwarf noun: any member of a race of beings from (especially Scandinavian and other Germanic) folklore, usually depicted as having some sort of supernatural powers and being skilled in crafting and metalworking, often as short with long beards, and sometimes as clashing with elves.

Image: School of Francisco Goya, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

dwarf (plural dwarfs or dwarves)

Any member of a race of beings from (especially Scandinavian and other Germanic) folklore, usually depicted as having some sort of supernatural powers and being skilled in crafting and metalworking, often as short with long beards, and sometimes as clashing with elves.
- [T]he elf king and his queen made a royal progress every noon with a splendid retinue of dwarves and sprites, […]1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, 1st US edition, New York: Viking Press, →ISBN, part 3: In the Zone, page 419
- Nidavellir, which is sometimes called Svartalfheim, where the dwarfs (who are also known as dark elves) live beneath the mountains and build their remarkable creations.2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 20
Synonyms:

dwarfin, dwarrow
(offensive, sometimes) A person of short stature, often one whose limbs are disproportionately small in relation to the body as compared with typical adults, usually as the result of a genetic condition.
- The nurse exclaimed it when I finally arrived, a month late (a habit I have kept). That's how my parents found out that I was a little person, a dwarf, of short stature.2014 September 12, Cara Reedy, “My life as a little person”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 Feb 2016
Synonyms:

elf, midget, pygmy

Antonyms:

ettin, giant
An animal, plant or other thing much smaller than the usual of its sort.
- dwarf tree
- dwarf honeysuckle
Synonyms:

runt
A dwarf star.
- But none of those brown dwarfs were speeding along on a trajectory that would carry them out of the galaxy like “runaway” hypervelocity stars observed by astronomers in the last two decades. […] The study team said it’s likely the star was a companion to a white dwarf star, which is the remaining...2024 August 21, Ashley Strickland, “An unusual object is moving so fast it could escape the Milky Way. Scientists aren’t certain what it is”, in CNN, archived from the original on 24 Sep 2024

Adjective

dwarf (comparative dwarfer, superlative dwarfest)

(especially) Miniature.
- The specimen is a very dwarf form of the plant.
- It is possible to grow the plants as dwarf as one desires.

Verb

dwarf (third-person singular simple present dwarfs, present participle dwarfing, simple past and past participle dwarfed)

(transitive) To render (much) smaller, turn into a dwarf (version).

Synonyms:

miniaturize, shrink
(transitive) To make appear (much) smaller, puny, tiny; to be much larger than.
- The newly-built skyscraper dwarfs all older buildings in the downtown skyline.
- The train bursts from Rusher Cutting Tunnel with explosive violence, the engine's exhaust soaring high into the air, but dwarfed by the mighty limestone cliffs on either side.1960 April, J. P. Wilson, E. N. C. Haywood, “The route through the Peak - Derby to Manchester: Part Two”, in Trains Illustrated, page 225
(transitive) To make appear insignificant.
- Bach dwarfs all other composers.
Synonyms:

eclipse, overshadow, outshadow, outshine, outdo, put to shame, upstage, surpass, outmatch, outstrip
(intransitive) To become (much) smaller.

Synonyms:

shrink
To hinder from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt.
- At present the whole sex is in a manner dwarfed and shrunk - into a race of beauties that seems almost another species1710 July 2 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1710”, in The Spectator, number 98; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume II...
- Even the most common moral ideas and affections […] would be stunted and dwarfed, if cut off from a spiritual background.1881, John Campbell Shairp, Aspects of Poetry

Proper noun capitalized: DWARF

DWARF

(file format) A standardized debugging file format.
- In debug mode, a compiled binary will include debugging symbols in the DWARF debugging format.2019, Rahul Sharma, Vesa Kaihlavirta, Mastering Rust, 2nd edition, Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 500

dwarf meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

dwarf in Hindi

a being from folklore, underground-dwelling nature spirit: बौना baunā

dwarf in Tamil

குள்ளர்

dwarf in Urdu

a being from folklore, underground-dwelling nature spirit: بَونا baunā

dwarf in Bengali

dwarf: বামন bamon

More languagesFewer languages

dwarf in Telugu: గిడ్డ giḍḍa, మరుగుజ్జు marugujju
dwarf in Malayalam: കുള്ളൻ kuḷḷaṉ, കുണ്ടൻ kuṇṭaṉ
dwarf in Kannada: ಕುಳ್ಳ, ಗುಚ್ಚ, ಗುಜ್ಜಾರಿ, ಸಣ್ಣುಕ
dwarf in Gujarati: બામણ bāmaṇ
dwarf in Sanskrit: ह्रस्व hrasvá, ट ṭa, किरात kirāta
dwarf in Assamese: বোন্দোৰা bündüra, বুটা buta
dwarf in Pashto: بونا bonā́
dwarf in Tagalog: himandak
dwarf in Arabic: قَزَم qazam, حَنْدَل ḥandal, حِنْتَار ḥintār, قَزَمَة qazama
dwarf in Indonesian: kurcaci
dwarf in Persian: کوتوله kutule
dwarf in Thai: คนแคระ kon-krɛ́, แคระ krɛ́
dwarf in Vietnamese: chú lùn, người lùn
dwarf in Myanmar: ပုတို pu.tui

Examples of dwarf in a sentence

They doctored their apple trees by vigorous pruning, and now the dwarfed trees are easier to pick.
The heat of a white dwarf is supersolar.
And when the white dwarf accumulates too much mass, it will collapse and explode in a supernova.

All 40 example sentences with dwarf

Synonyms of dwarf

8 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

ettin
giant

All synonyms and antonyms of dwarf

Forms of dwarf

Noun
plural	dwarfs
plural	dwarves
Adjective
comparative	dwarfer
superlative	dwarfest
Verb
third-person singular present	dwarfs
present participle	dwarfing
past participle	dwarfed
past	dwarfed

Past tense of dwarf: dwarfed

Plural of dwarf: dwarfs or dwarves

Origin of dwarf

From Middle English dwergh, dwerw, dwerf, from Old English dweorg, from Proto-West Germanic *dwerg, from Proto-Germanic *dwergaz. Cognate with Scots droich, dwerch (“dwarf, midget”); Old High German twerc (German, Luxembourgish Zwerg (“dwarf”)); Old Norse dvergr (Danish dværg (“dwarf, midget”), Faroese dvørgur (“dwarf”), Icelandic dvergur (“dwarf”), Norwegian Bokmål dverg (“dwarf”), Norwegian Nynorsk dverg, verg (“dwarf”), Swedish dvärg (“dwarf”)); Old Frisian dwirg (Saterland Frisian Dwärch (“dwarf”), West Frisian dwerch (“dwarf”)); Middle Low German dwerch, dwarch, twerg (German Low German Dwarg (“dwarf”)); Middle Dutch dwerch, dworch (Dutch dwerg (“dwarf”)). The Modern English noun has undergone complex phonetic changes. The form dwarf is the regular continuation of Old English dweorg, but the plural dweorgas would have given rise to dwarrows and the oblique stem dweorge- would have led to dwery. These forms are sometimes found as the nominative singular in Middle English texts and in English dialects. A parallel case is that of Old English burg giving burgh, borough, burrow, bury.

A play on the related ELF object file format. The backronym “Debugging With Arbitrary Record Formats” has been suggested.

Phrases with dwarf

81 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with dwarf

Questions about dwarf

What does dwarf mean?: Dwarf means any member of a race of beings from (especially Scandinavian and other Germanic) folklore, usually depicted as having some sort of supernatural powers and being skilled in crafting and metalworking, often as short with long beards, and sometimes as clashing with elves.
What is dwarf in Hindi?: Dwarf in Hindi is बौना (baunā). See Dwarf meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is dwarf?: Dwarf can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dwarf?: Dwarf is pronounced /dwɔɹf/ (US).
What is the plural of dwarf?: The plural of dwarf is dwarfs.

Words near dwarf in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-dwarf.ogg.

Cite this entry: “dwarf.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dwarf. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.