Word.ws English Dictionary

männlein

Syllables: Männ·lein/ˈmænlaɪn/

männlein is the alternative letter-case form of Männlein.

Noun capitalized: Männlein

Männlein (plural Männleins)

  1. A little man; a dwarf, a mannikin.
    • There was the wife of the männlein, dressed in a robe of silk, richer far than was ever worn by wife of burgomaster; and there were his brothers, and his daughter, with her fair hair falling over her shoulders, and her exquisitely soft blue eye.1847 June 5, “Sketch of the Traditions of Germany”, in Sharpe's London Magazine: A Journal of Entertainment and Instruction for General Reading, volume IV, number 84, London: T. B. Sharpe, 15...
    • It is astonishing how this activity keeps up to the end of the day and how the child struggles against fatigue and sleepiness. After having looked at his Brownie book in bed awhile S. was laid down by his mother to be sung to sleep as usual and the gas was turned down. Whereat he said: "[…]...1902 May, M. C. Gale, H. Gale, “Children's Vocabularies”, in J. McKeen Cattell, editor, The Popular Science Monthly, volume LXI, New York, N.Y.: The Science Press, →OCLC, page 4950

Forms of männlein

pluralmännleins
pluralMännleins
alternative formmännlein
alternative formMannlein
alternative formmannlein

Origin of männlein

Borrowed from German Männlein (“a little man”), from Mann (“man”) + -lein (diminutive suffix); compare English manling.

Questions about männlein

What does männlein mean?
Männlein means a little man; a dwarf, a mannikin.
What is männlein the alternative letter-case form of?
Männlein is the alternative letter-case form of Männlein.
What part of speech is männlein?
Männlein is a noun.
How do you pronounce männlein?
Männlein is pronounced /ˈmænlaɪn/ (UK).
What is the plural of männlein?
The plural of männlein is männleins.

Words near männlein in the dictionary

  1. Mânzălești
  2. Mânăileasa
  3. Mârzănești
  4. mãe-de-santo
  5. mämmi
  6. männlein
  7. männleins
  8. Mänti
  9. Mäori
  10. märzen
  11. märzenbier

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: männlein (page history and authors); Männlein (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Männlein.wav.

Cite this entry: “männlein.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/m%C3%A4nnlein. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.