pixie
Americannoun
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a fairy or sprite, especially a mischievous one.
-
a small, pert, or mischievous person.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pixie
First recorded in 1620–30; originally dialect (southwestern England) pixy, pigsy, pisky; origin uncertain
Explanation
A pixie is a mythical creature that resembles a mischievous fairy. If you spy some adorable little sprites in green pointed hats sneaking around the woods, you can bet that they're pixies. Pixies appear in folk and fairy tales from the southwest part of England, making minor mischief and dancing in groups. Today a pixie is more or less the same as a fairy or sprite, but older folktales describe conflicts (and even wars) between these groups. The root of the word pixie is a mystery — it may be related to the Swedish dialect pyske, "small fairy," but it's probably rooted in an unknown Celtic word.
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.
See Examples For:
Favorites by Diana Ross and Beyoncé are held up to the roar of the crowd before pixie dust is released from the musical’s original Broadway cast album.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
Cardi B sported a range of different hairstyles for her court appearances this week, including a black pixie cut one day and long blonde locks the next.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2025
For Knox, freedom has meant accepting a mantle that her young, manic pixie self could never have envisioned.
From Salon ● Apr. 14, 2025
And somehow — despite all the worrying, and yes, my mom worried a lot — there was an idea that things would work out in the end, no pixie dust needed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2025
“I’m going to make a pile of gold. Every pixie within a mile of here will be swarming this room if you leave those windows open, and that will probably be worse than a sneeze.”
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Dominic: It’s a little like when Professor Lockhart released that swarm of Cornish pixies in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”: They’re everywhere and constantly in your face.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 21, 2023
Jack teams up with a team of elves, fairies, pixies and sprites to infiltrate the bowels of the wicked great tree of life for a final confrontation with the devilish Lord.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 2, 2021
"It's scarcely worth having a name for. I don't have a name for not believing in pixies."
From BBC ● Nov. 27, 2019
And the 10-episode first season does spoof Disney, from “Lady and the Tramp” to street-wise Peter Pan-esque fairies — more swaggering TinkerBallers than Tinkerbell — who soar like gritty pixies over the castle of Dreamland.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 16, 2018
The pixies were more subdued, and they began building nests for their winter sleep.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
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.
