Word.ws English Dictionary

elf

/ɛlf/

elf noun: a supernatural being or spirit associated with illness, mischief, and harmful or dangerous magical influence; in later Norse sources, sometimes divided into benevolent light elves (inhabiting Álfheimr) and malevolent dark elves. Also the ellipsis of Christmas elf.

Noun (1)

elf (plural elves or (now nonstandard) elfs)

  1. (Germanic) A supernatural being or spirit associated with illness, mischief, and harmful or dangerous magical influence; in later Norse sources, sometimes divided into benevolent light elves (inhabiting Álfheimr) and malevolent dark elves.
    • […] if theyr children at any time vvere frowarde and vvanton, they would ſay to them that the Guelfe or the Gibeline came. VVhich vvords novve from them (as many thinge els) be come into our vſage, and for Guelfes and Gibelines, we ſay Elfes & Goblins.1579, E. K., “[Iune. Ægloga Sexta.] Glosse.”, in Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC, folio 25, recto
    • The man whom heauens haue ordaynd to bee
      The ſpouſe of Britomart, is Arthegall:
      He wonneth in the land of Fayeree,
      Yet is no Fary borne, ne ſib at all
      To Elfes, but ſprong of ſeed terreſtriall,
      And whylome by falſe Faries ſtolne away,
      Whyles yet in infant cradle he did crall;
      Ne other to himſelfe...1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 433
    Synonyms:
    goblin, fairy
  2. A small, magical creature similar to a fairy, often mischievous, playful, or occasionally helpful.
    • For there and ſeveral other places
      About mill dams and green brae faces,
      Both Elrich, Elfs and Brownies ſtayed,
      And Green gown’d Farries daunc’d and played; […]a. 1690, William Cleland, A Collection of Several Poems and Verses, Composed upon Various Occasions, published 1697, page 59
    • IN Days of Old when Arthur fill’d the Throne,
      Whoſe Acts and Fame to Foreign Lands were blown;
      The King of Elfs and little Fairy Queen
      Gamboll’d on Heaths, and danc’d on ev’ry Green.1700, [John] Dryden, “The Wife of Bath Her Tale [by Geoffrey Chaucer]”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 479
  3. A member of a race of tall, slender, graceful beings with pointed ears, typically immortal or very long-lived and possessing wisdom and magical abilities.
    • Much of fairy lore clusters around the so-called fairy rings, that is, the green circles in old pastures within which the elfs were supposed to dance at night by the light of the moon.1889 May, “[Literary Notices.] The Folk-Lore of Plants. By T. F. Thiselton Dyer. […]”, in Popular Science, page 128, column 1
    • He was not speaking troll-talk now, but the language of Elfland, that grander tongue that he had had to speak when he was before the King: for he knew the language of Elfland although it was never used in the homes of the trolls, who preferred troll-talk. This language was spoken in those days also...1924, Lord Dunsany, chapter VII, in The King of Elfland's Daughter, New York: G.P. Puttnam's Sons, page 59
  4. (obsolete) A very diminutive person; a dwarf.
  5. (South Africa) Bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix).

Verb

elf (third-person singular simple present elfs, present participle elfing, simple past and past participle elfed)

  1. (archaic) To twist into elflocks (of hair); to mat.
    • My face I'll grime with filth, blanket my loins, elf all my hairs in knots, and with presented nakedness outface the winds and persecutions of the sky.c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Noun (2) capitalized: ELF

ELF (uncountable)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym, file format) Acronym of Executable and Linking Format, a common object file format for Unix.
    • In ELF executables, there aren't a whole lot of code caves (such as in the PE format), so you are not likely to be able to shove more than just a meager amount of shellcode into existing code slots […]2016, Ryan "elfmaster" O'Neill, Learning Linux Binary Analysis, page 97
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of extremely low frequency.
  3. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of English as a lingua franca (“English used by non-native speakers”).
    • The consequences of the massive volume of ELF to English taken as a whole, as the aggregate use of the language, is essentially a descriptive issue: what new features of English are emerging and taking hold?2012, Anna Mauranen, Exploring ELF: Academic English Shaped by Non-native Speakers, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 3

Proper noun capitalized: ELF

ELF

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmentalism group.
    • In the late 1990s, the ELF became notorious for setting fire to symbols of ecological destruction, including timber mills, an S.U.V. dealership and a ski resort.2022 May 26, Matthew Wolfe, “The Rise and Fall of America’s Environmentalist Underground”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Elvish Linguistic Fellowship, an organization that studies the invented languages of J. R. R. Tolkien.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Endangered Language Fund, a non-profit organization.

Also used as

elf is also the ellipsis of Christmas elf.

elf meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

elf in Hindi

mythical, supernatural being
देव dev, अप्सरा apsarā, एल्फ elph, एल्फ़ elf

elf in Tamil

எல்ஃப்

elf in Marathi

fantasy: magical, typically forest-guarding creature
एल्फ elpha
Norse mythology: luminous spirit dwelling in Álfheim
एल्फ elpha
mythical, supernatural being
एल्फ elpha

elf in Urdu

ایلف
More languagesFewer languages
elf in Bengali
এলফ, এল্ফ, এলফ-এর প্রতি
elf in Malayalam
എൽഫ്
elf in Kannada
ಎಲ್ಫ್, ಎಲ್ಫ್ಗೆ
elf in Gujarati
એલ્ફ, એલફ
elf in Odia
ଏଲ୍ଫ୍, ଏଲ୍ଫ
elf in Nepali
एल्फ
elf in Arabic
آلْف ʔālf
elf in Indonesian
peri, elf
elf in Persian
الف elf, وروجک vorujak
elf in Thai
เอลฟ์ éo

Examples of elf in a sentence

  • […] I had rather have a Child which my Wife ſhould bring me, though by another man, then to have a Changeling brought me by a company of Fairies, Elfs and Goblins: […]1649, ΕΙΚΩΝ Ἡ ΠΙΣΤΗ. Or, The Faithfull Pourtraicture of a Loyall Subject, in Vindication of ΕΙΚΏΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΉ. […], page 16:
  • The opinion of Fairies and Elfs is very old, and yet ſticketh very religiously in the minds of ſome.1678, The Shepherds Calendar: Containing Twelve Æglogues, Proportionable to the Twelve Months. […], London: […] Henry Hills for Jonathan...
  • […]the Devaſtations under the Goths, Guelphs, and Gibelines [whence ſome would derive the Terms of Elfs (or Elves) or Fairies, and Goblins (or Hobgoblins) or Spectres, &c.] […]1760, Andrew Brice, “TUSCANY”, in The Grand Gazetteer; or, Topographic Dictionary, &c., page 1322, column 1:
  • These Picts are the Clan Alpin, the Alps, or Elfs or Elves,—[…]1850, Matthew Stewart, Remarks on the Subject of Language, with Some Observations in the Form of Notes, Illustrative of the Information...

All 23 example sentences with elf

Synonyms of elf

Forms of elf

Noun
pluralelves
plural (nonstandard)elfs
alternative form (obsolete)elve
Verb
third-person singular presentelfs
present participleelfing
past participleelfed
pastelfed

Plural of elf: elves

Origin of elf

From Middle English elf, from Old English ielf, ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz. Ultimately probably derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (“white”). Doublet of alf, awf, and oaf. The modern fantasy literature sense was popularised by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Words formed from elf

Phrases with elf

Words that rhyme with elf

38 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about elf

What does elf mean?
Elf means a supernatural being or spirit associated with illness, mischief, and harmful or dangerous magical influence; in later Norse sources, sometimes divided into benevolent light elves (inhabiting Álfheimr) and malevolent dark elves.
What is elf in Hindi?
Elf in Hindi is देव (dev), अप्सरा (apsarā), एल्फ (elph). See Elf meaning in Hindi.
How do you use elf in a sentence?
[…] I had rather have a Child which my Wife ſhould bring me, though by another man, then to have a Changeling brought me by a company of Fairies, Elfs and Goblins: […]
What part of speech is elf?
Elf can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce elf?
Elf is pronounced /ɛlf/.
What is the plural of elf?
The plural of elf is elves.

Words near elf in the dictionary

  1. elexes
  2. Eley
  3. Eleys
  4. Elez
  5. eleëmosynary
  6. elf
  7. elf and safety
  8. elf arrow
  9. elf arrows
  10. elf barrow
  11. elf barrows

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: elf (page history and authors); ELF (page history and authors); elf (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); elf (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); elf (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); elf (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); elf (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); elf (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); elf (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); elf (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

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

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