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dwarf

Pronunciation: /dwɔɹf/

The English word “dwarf” has 10 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Any member of a race of beings from (especially Scandinavian and other Germanic) folklore, usually depicted as having some sort of supernatural powers and being skilled in crafting and metalworking, often as short with long beards, and sometimes as clashing with elves.
  2. A person of short stature, often one whose limbs are disproportionately small in relation to the body as compared with typical adults, usually as the result of a genetic condition.
  3. An animal, plant or other thing much smaller than the usual of its sort.
  4. A dwarf star.

adjective

  1. Miniature.

verb

  1. To render (much) smaller, turn into a dwarf (version).
  2. To make appear (much) smaller, puny, tiny; to be much larger than.
  3. To make appear insignificant.
  4. To become (much) smaller.
  5. To hinder from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt.

Etymology

From Middle English dwergh, dwerw, dwerf, from Old English dweorg, from Proto-West Germanic *dwerg, from Proto-Germanic *dwergaz. Cognate with Scots droich, dwerch (“dwarf, midget”); Old High German twerc (German, Luxembourgish Zwerg (“dwarf”)); Old Norse dvergr (Danish dværg (“dwarf, midget”), Faroese dvørgur (“dwarf”), Icelandic dvergur (“dwarf”), Norwegian Bokmål dverg (“dwarf”), Norwegian…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.