Word.ws English Dictionary

tommyknocker

/ˈtɒmiːnɒkə/

tommyknocker noun: a mythical creature, like a brownie or leprechaun, believed to live in underground tunnels; later associated with dead miners.

Noun

tommyknocker (plural tommyknockers)

  1. A mythical creature, like a brownie or leprechaun, believed to live in underground tunnels; later associated with dead miners.
    • Then he's down one of these adits, talking to the tommyknockers, more'n likely.2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 335

Forms of tommyknocker

pluraltommyknockers

Origin of tommyknocker

From Cornwall.

Questions about tommyknocker

What does tommyknocker mean?
Tommyknocker means a mythical creature, like a brownie or leprechaun, believed to live in underground tunnels; later associated with dead miners.
What part of speech is tommyknocker?
Tommyknocker is a noun.
How do you pronounce tommyknocker?
Tommyknocker is pronounced /ˈtɒmiːnɒkə/.
What is the plural of tommyknocker?
The plural of tommyknocker is tommyknockers.

Words near tommyknocker in the dictionary

  1. tommyhawk
  2. tommyhawked
  3. tommyhawking
  4. tommyhawks
  5. tommying
  6. tommyknocker
  7. tommyknockers
  8. tommyrot
  9. tommyrots
  10. tommyto
  11. tommytoe

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tommyknocker (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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