Word.ws English Dictionary

underpants gnomes

underpants gnomes is the plural of underpants gnome.

Meaning of underpants gnome

Noun

underpants gnome (plural underpants gnomes)

  1. (derogatory, slang) Someone who makes incomplete plans with missing steps; someone who plans unsuccessfully.
    • 2. ? 3. Profit! Do you think their plan is missing something? They know Success in Programming 53 There Is No Try It's a Question of Passion Don't Plan Like an Underpants Gnome.2014, Frederic Harper, Success in Programming: How to Gain Recognition, Power, and Influence Through Personal Branding, Apress, →ISBN, page 53
  2. (attributive, derogatory, slang) A plan with missing steps; an incomplete plan.
    • Like the rest of Trump World, Page brought a kind of Underpants Gnome theory to his bromance with Team Putin. Through some unknown alchemy, he expected to benefit Trump and gain influence and profit from his Russia foray.2018, Rick Wilson, Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 232

Questions about underpants gnomes

What is underpants gnomes the plural of?
Underpants gnomes is the plural of underpants gnome.

Words near underpants gnomes in the dictionary

  1. underpant
  2. underpanted
  3. underpanties
  4. underpants
  5. underpants gnome
  6. underpants gnomes
  7. underparameterization
  8. underparameterized
  9. underparent
  10. underparented
  11. underparenting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: underpants gnomes (page history and authors); underpants gnome (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:

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