hobbit
Americannoun
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a member of a race of imaginary creatures related to and resembling humans, living in underground holes and characterized by their good nature, diminutive size, and hairy feet.
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a nickname for Homo floresiensis.
noun
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one of an imaginary race of half-size people living in holes
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a nickname used for a very small type of primitive human, Homo floresiensis , following the discovery of remains of eight such people on the Island of Flores, Indonesia, in 2004
Other Word Forms
- hobbitry noun
Etymology
Origin of hobbit
1937; coined by J. R. R. Tolkien in his fantasy novel “The Hobbit”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Nicknamed the hobbit because of its small stature, the species challenged long-standing ideas about human evolution.
From Science Daily • Feb. 19, 2026
A well-traveled hobbit named Trotter is revised into Aragorn, king of Gondor.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025
Other posts made by Mr Wishart to the Grok chatbot included the questions "is it true you live in Elon Musk's house" and "can you draw a picture of Elon as a hobbit".
From BBC • Nov. 5, 2025
Thiel was so shaped by the vision of hobbit life that the Palo Alto offices of his multibillion dollar firm, Palantir Technologies, are informally known as "The Shire."
From Salon • Feb. 16, 2023
He went down to meet him and hastily took the dark globe from the hobbit, wrapping it in the folds of his cloak.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
