Word.ws English Dictionary

kelpies

kelpies is the plural of kelpie.

Meaning of kelpie

Noun

kelpie (plural kelpies)

  1. (Celtic mythology) A malevolent shapeshifting spirit, most often in the form of a horse, believed to haunt the rivers and lochs of Scotland.
    • He was a boy in form, and an antediluvian in feature. Some thought he was a mule, between a Jew and an ape; some a wizard, some a kelpie, or a fairy, but most of all, that he was really and truly a Brownie.1828, James Hogg, The Brownie of the Black Haggs
  2. An Australian breed of sheepdog.
    • There was no sound but the endless noise of forest and river, and the sleep-whimper of his kelpie.1979, Thea Astley, Hunting the Wild Pineapple, Nelson, page 28

Questions about kelpies

What is kelpies the plural of?
Kelpies is the plural of kelpie.

Words near kelpies in the dictionary

  1. kelper
  2. kelpers
  3. kelpfish
  4. kelpfishes
  5. kelpie
  6. kelpies
  7. Kelpin
  8. kelping
  9. kelps
  10. kelpware
  11. kelpwort

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kelpies (page history and authors); kelpie (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.

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