gremlin

Syllables: grem·linUK/ˈɡɹɛmlɪn//ˈɡɹɛmlən/

gremlin noun: a contemptible person.

Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

gremlin (plural gremlins)

(obsolete, Royal Air Force slang) A contemptible person.

Synonyms:

absolute zero, also-ran, chopped liver, cipher, crumb, Joe Nobody, little guy, minnow, nebbish, nobody
(Royal Air Force slang) An imaginary creature reputed to be mischievously inclined, for example, to damage or dismantle machinery.
- Like Abominable Snowmen, gremlins have never actually been seen; but nobody who works with electronic gear doubts the existence of these mischievous and elusive entities. There are too many malfunctions and failures that can have no other explanation.1963, Arthur C Clarke, chapter 8, in Glidepath, New York: Simon and Schuster, pages 72-73
- Crucial time was saved by the fact Nexus didn't require a Transport & Works Act. Nevertheless, other gremlins kept raising their heads.2023 November 29, Richard Foster, “Tyne & Wear Metro goes with the flow”, in RAIL, number 997, page 34
(broadly) Any mysterious, unknown source of mischief or trouble, or the problem created thereby.
- We rechecked everything, and we suspect gremlins in the database.
Synonyms:

bug, glitch, hitch
(broadly, slang) A young, inexperienced surfer or skateboarder, regarded as a nuisance.

Synonyms:

grem, gremmie, gremmy, grommet
(broadly) A person regarded as similar to a fictional gremlin, in particular: mischievous, troublesome, short, or annoying.
- Rosa, the main character in Tears of Themis, is also very smart, justice-driven, and willing to help. Meanwhile, the Honkai: Star Rail Trailblazer […] can often be a sarcastic, pessimistic, lazy, self-serving, dumpster-diving gremlin. […] That’s absolutely gremlin behavior.2023 May 3, Jenni Lada, “Honkai: Star Rail’s Trailblazer Avatar Is a Gremlin and It’s Great”, in Siliconera, archived from the original on 15 Jan 2024

gremlin meaning in Marathi

gremlin in Marathi

imaginary creature reputed to be mischievously inclined to damage or dismantle machinery: ग्रेमलिन gremlin

Synonyms of gremlin

23 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of gremlin

Forms of gremlin

plural	gremlins

Plural of gremlin: gremlins

Origin of gremlin

Uncertain; the following etymologies have been suggested: * A variant of goblin. * From Irish gruaimín (“gloomy little person”); or from Dutch gremmelen (“to soil, stain; to spoil”), or griemelen, grimmelen (“(obsolete) to abound, teem; to swarm”); but Oxford English Dictionary says there is little evidence for such derivations. The word was popularized, especially in the United States, by the children’s novel The Gremlins (1943) by British author Roald Dahl (1916–1990), in which gremlins sabotage Royal Air Force aircraft in revenge for the destruction of their forest home to make way for an aircraft factory; the creatures later join forces with the British to fight the Nazis.

Words formed from gremlin

Questions about gremlin

What does gremlin mean?: Gremlin means a contemptible person.
What is gremlin in Marathi?: Gremlin in Marathi is ग्रेमलिन (gremlin). See Gremlin meaning in Marathi.
What part of speech is gremlin?: Gremlin is a noun.
How do you pronounce gremlin?: Gremlin is pronounced /ˈɡɹɛmlɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of gremlin?: The plural of gremlin is gremlins.

Words near gremlin in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: gremlin (page history and authors). 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: 2026-09-02

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

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