Word.ws English Dictionary

pfaff

pfaff interjection: indicating disapproval, scoffery, irritation, impatience or disbelief. Also the alternative spelling of faff.

Interjection

  1. Indicating disapproval, scoffery, irritation, impatience or disbelief.
    • “Let him! Dost think these simple Englishmen can ever compete with us on the high seas? Pfaff! They are like the silly sheep they raise and are only fit for shearing. […]”1937, Elinor Whitney Field, “The Coffer Keys” (chapter 5), in Tod of the Fens, The Macmillan Company, page 63
    Synonyms:
    pshaw

Proper noun capitalized: Pfaff

Pfaff (plural Pfaffs)

  1. A surname from German.

Also used as

pfaff is also the alternative spelling of faff.

Synonyms of pfaff

Forms of pfaff

Verb
third-person singular presentpfaffs
present participlepfaffing
past participlepfaffed
pastpfaffed
Proper noun
pluralPfaffs

Origin of pfaff

Borrowed from German Pfaff, from Middle High German pfaffe (“cleric”).

Words formed from pfaff

Questions about pfaff

What does pfaff mean?
Pfaff means indicating disapproval, scoffery, irritation, impatience or disbelief.
What part of speech is pfaff?
Pfaff can be an interjection or a proper noun.

Words near pfaff in the dictionary

  1. PF ratios
  2. pf.
  3. PFA
  4. PFAA
  5. PFAAs
  6. pfaff
  7. pfaffed
  8. Pfaffenschlag bei Waidhofen an der Thaya
  9. pfaffian
  10. pfaffians
  11. pfaffic acid

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pfaff (page history and authors); Pfaff (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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Cite this entry: “pfaff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pfaff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.