goblin

American  

[gob-lin] / ˈgɒb lɪn /

noun

• goblins
  plural

1. a grotesque sprite or elf that is mischievous or malicious toward people.

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goblin British  

/ ˈɡɒblɪn /

noun

1. (in folklore) a small grotesque supernatural creature, regarded as malevolent towards human beings

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Synonym Usage

Goblin, gnome, gremlin refer to supernatural beings thought to be malevolent to people. Goblins are demons of any size, usually in human or animal form, that are supposed to assail, afflict, and even torture human beings: “Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd, …” (Shakespeare, Hamlet I, iv ). Gnomes are small beings, like ugly little old men, who live in the earth, guarding mines, treasures, etc. They are mysteriously malevolent and terrify human beings by causing dreadful mishaps to occur. Gremlins are thought to disrupt machinery and are active in modern folklore.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• goblins
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of goblin

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English gobelin, from Middle French, from Middle High German kobold “goblin”; see kobold

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Explanation

In fairy tales, goblins are mischievous, magical creatures. While fairies and gnomes are often portrayed as kind, goblins are usually malicious troublemakers. In the 1500s, a goblin was defined as "a mischievous and ugly fairy" or "a devil." Since then some fictional goblins have been slightly less menacing than that original definition suggests, but these mean little creatures are almost never the heroes of the stories in which they appear. In the Harry Potter books, dangerous goblins control the wizard banks, and the Spiderman films include several malevolent goblins among their antagonists.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

goblin goblins

Before these discoveries, goblin sharks were known only from relatively limited regions off the western United States, Australia, and Japan in the Pacific Ocean, along with small areas of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 8, 2026

The rare, and many say ugly, goblin shark is seen alive for the first time.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 12, 2026

It’s like, wait, why not go full goblin mode?

From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026

“Because ‘helpful minion in a power suit’ was taken, so I evolved into goblin mode,” came the reply, according to another post.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

Jack knew he could attack the goblin empty-handed, but that wouldn’t end well.

From "Half Upon a Time" by James Riley

OpenAI said that for the bot’s “nerdy” personality, which was designed to dial up the playful language, mentions of goblins in its GPT-5.4 model increased 3,881% from a previous version.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

Apparently, if left to its own devices, OpenAI’s Codex coding agent is apt to repeatedly talk about goblins apropos of nothing.

From Barron's ● Apr. 29, 2026

Paula Dewar and her family have, for years, covered their home and outside street with hordes of ghouls, ghosts and goblins.

From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2025

A back door full of ghosts and goblins to enter … it took us you know, the last millennia to get rid of ghosts and goblins…which I think is totally nonsense.

From Salon ● Apr. 21, 2024

They saw the sun rising over the country of the goblins.

From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin

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Related Words

• gnome
• gremlin

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