Word.ws English Dictionary

halfling

/ˈhɑːflɪŋ//ˈhæflɪŋ/

halfling noun: a fictional small humanoid creature featuring in fantasy fiction; a hobbit.

Noun

halfling (plural halflings)

  1. A fictional small humanoid creature featuring in fantasy fiction; a hobbit.
  2. A fictional humanoid born of a human parent and a parent of another race in fantasy fiction.
  3. A half-grown person, between a child and an adult.
    • Often it had been my fate to accompany the pick of the knight errantry of Whinnyliggate on such quests—for, though Nance was about my own age, she had become a reigning belle while I was but a halfling boy.1897, Lady's Realm: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume 1, page 52

halfling meaning in Tamil and Marathi

halfling in Tamil

குறளன்

halfling in Marathi

a hobbit
हाफलिंग hāphliṅga

Forms of halfling

pluralhalflings

Origin of halfling

From half + -ling. Sense 3 ("half-grown young person") is attested to 1794. It was then used by J.R.R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings (1954) as an alternative reference to members of his hobbit race. Hobbits were used in the original 1974 releases of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, but in later editions they were changed to "halflings" for legal reasons, as being a pre-existing word rather than one invented by Tolkien.

Questions about halfling

What does halfling mean?
Halfling means a fictional small humanoid creature featuring in fantasy fiction; a hobbit.
What is halfling in Tamil?
Halfling in Tamil is குறளன். See Halfling meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is halfling?
Halfling is a noun.
How do you pronounce halfling?
Halfling is pronounced /ˈhæflɪŋ/ (US).
What is the plural of halfling?
The plural of halfling is halflings.

Words near halfling in the dictionary

  1. halfhumans
  2. halfie
  3. halfies
  4. halfing
  5. halflife
  6. halfling
  7. halflings
  8. halflives
  9. halfly
  10. Halfmann
  11. Halfmanns

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: halfling (page history and authors); halfling (Tamil Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-halfling.wav.

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