Word.ws English Dictionary

sylph

/sɪlf/

sylph noun: an invisible being of the air.

sylph: an invisible being of the air
Image: Andy Morffew from Itchen Abbas, Hampshire, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

sylph (plural sylphs)

  1. An invisible being of the air.
    • Her heart fluttered with expectation—her step was buoyant with hope, and she sprung into the carriage with the lightness of a sylph.1811, Mary Brunton, Self-Control
    • Necromancy meant originally the conjuring up the souls of the dead, and later included the conjuring of all sorts of inhuman spirits such as sylphs, giants, and djinn.1941, Rupert Gleadow, Magic and Divination, page 125
    Synonyms:
    sylphid
  2. The elemental being of air, usually female.
  3. (broadly) A slender woman or girl, usually graceful and sometimes with the implication of sublime station over everyday people.
  4. Any of the mainly dark green and blue hummingbirds (genus Aglaiocercus), the male of which has a long forked tail.

sylph meaning in Tamil

sylph in Tamil

ஒல்லியான அழகிய பெண், தேவதை

Synonyms of sylph

Forms of sylph

pluralsylphs

Origin of sylph

First attested in 1657. From New Latin sylphes, coined by Paracelsus in the 16th century. The coinage may derive from Latin sylvestris (“of the woods”) and nympha (“nymph”). Ultimately from the root silva (“woods, forest”). Related to sylvan. More at Wikipedia.

Words formed from sylph

Words that rhyme with sylph

Questions about sylph

What does sylph mean?
Sylph means an invisible being of the air.
What is sylph in Tamil?
Sylph in Tamil is ஒல்லியான அழகிய பெண், தேவதை. See Sylph meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is sylph?
Sylph is a noun.
How do you pronounce sylph?
Sylph is pronounced /sɪlf/.
What is the plural of sylph?
The plural of sylph is sylphs.

Words near sylph in the dictionary

  1. Sylmar
  2. Syloti
  3. Sylotis
  4. Sylow theorem
  5. Sylow theorems
  6. sylph
  7. sylphic
  8. sylphid
  9. sylphide
  10. sylphides
  11. sylphidic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sylph (page history and authors); sylph (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: en-us-sylph.ogg.

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