dwarf
Americannoun
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dwarves,
plural
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dwarfs
plural
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a person of abnormally small physical stature resulting from a medical or genetic condition, especially a person with achondroplasia or some other disease that produces disproportion or deformation of features and limbs.
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an animal or plant much smaller than the average of its kind or species.
- Synonyms:
- runt
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(in folklore) a being in the form of a small, often misshapen man, usually having magic powers.
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Astronomy. dwarf star.
adjective
verb (used with object)
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dwarfs,
present (3rd person singular)
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dwarfed,
past participle, past
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dwarfing
present participle
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to cause to appear or seem small in size, extent, character, etc., as by being much larger or better.
He dwarfed all his rivals in athletic ability.
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to make dwarf or dwarfish; prevent the due development of.
verb (used without object)
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dwarfs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dwarfed,
past participle, past
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dwarfing
present participle
noun
-
an abnormally undersized person, esp one with a large head and short arms and legs Compare midget
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an animal or plant much below the average height for the species
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( as modifier )
a dwarf tree
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(in folklore) a small ugly manlike creature, often possessing magical powers
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astronomy short for dwarf star
verb
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to become or cause to become comparatively small in size, importance, etc
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(tr) to stunt the growth of
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An abnormally small person, often having limbs and features atypically proportioned or formed.
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An atypically small animal or plant.
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A dwarf star or dwarf galaxy.
Sensitive Note
Is it OK to say dwarf? See midget.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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dwarfishnessnoun
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dwarfnessnoun
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dwarfishadjective
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dwarflikeadjective
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undwarfedadjective
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dwarfishlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dwarfsimple
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dwarfssimple
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have dwarfedperfect
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has dwarfedperfect
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am dwarfingprogressive
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are dwarfingprogressive
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is dwarfingprogressive
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have been dwarfingperfect progressive
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has been dwarfingperfect progressive
Past
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dwarfedsimple
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had dwarfedperfect
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was dwarfingprogressive
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were dwarfingprogressive
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had been dwarfingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dwarf
First recorded before 900; Middle English dwerf, Old English dweorh; replacing Middle English dwerg, Old English dweorg; cognate with Old High German twerg, Old Norse dvergr
Explanation
An unusually short, small person is sometimes called a dwarf. There are many different genetic medical conditions that can cause a person to be classified as a little person or a dwarf. Some people are offended by dwarf, preferring to be called "little people," "LP," or "people of short stature." The general condition that leads to delayed growth is called "dwarfism." The noun dwarf is also used for an unusually small animal or plant, or as a verb meaning "make something seem very small," as when a new apartment building dwarfs the surrounding houses. The Old English root dweorg referred to a tiny creature from German mythology.
Vocabulary lists containing dwarf
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:
Twenty years on, the big six are signing deals which dwarf that.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Even a few flowery sentences in “Kitchen Confidential” about lessons learned working at The Dreadnaught dwarf “Tony” in comparison.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
As stars from the dwarf galaxy entered the larger galaxy, one of them may have passed too close to the dwarf galaxy's own supermassive black hole.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026
The MAS uses the exchange rate rather than interest rates as its main policy tool because Singapore’s trade flows dwarf its domestic economic activity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
“But it is still considered a dwarf planet.”
From "The Smartest Kid in the Universe" by Chris Grabenstein
It is a body of work that dwarfs anything put together by his rivals.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Astronomers have long suspected that white dwarfs also receive kicks, but the process is much gentler because these stars do not explode.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
Most nearby red dwarfs have not yet been systematically examined for concealed white dwarf companions.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
Near the heart of downtown lies the church’s spiritual headquarters, the 377,000-square-foot cathedral-like Flag Building, which dwarfs surrounding properties and draws Scientologists from around the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
For white dwarfs, the pressure of the electrons, stripped from their nuclei, holds the star up.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
It dwarves the revenues of a team from the other top five leagues.
From BBC ● May 28, 2026
The Trump administration has greenlighted its first new bank, and it is a startup that takes its name from a mountain where dwarves stored their treasure in J.R.R.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
There's also a debate over the fate of the seven dwarves, after unofficial images emerged of what have now been billed as seven "magical creatures".
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2023
But in the following weeks and then years, I saw an entire country buy into that carnivalesque rhetoric, that bandwagon of "dwarves and dancers," as we said at the time, and bring it into government.
From Salon ● Jun. 18, 2023
‘We do not speak of dwarves or children,’ said Gimli.
From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien
At roughly $250 billion, AstraZeneca’s market capitalization is still dwarfed by such rivals as Eli Lilly and Johnson & Johnson, sitting around $1 trillion and $600 billion, respectively.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
While Irish farmers did export some food to Britain, "it was dwarfed by the amount being brought in for distribution by the UK government", he added.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
As large swings in individual stocks have recently dwarfed moves for the S&P 500 as a whole, the spread between two important gauges of implied volatility has expanded to its widest level on record.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 16, 2026
Issuance in the first half of the year dwarfed the $421 billion raised in the same period last year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
It was so beautiful that I stopped near a thicket of dwarfed and wind-warped cedars and junipers, and once stopped I was caught, trapped in color and dazzled by the clarity of the light.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
A successful debut could make him history's first trillionaire, dwarfing other billionaires in the sheer size of his fortune.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
There were more than 323 million visits to America’s national parks in 2025, dwarfing attendance — 135 million — at professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey games combined.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
Middleton has spent more than $16 million of his own money on the race so far, dwarfing any of his previous political spending many times over.
From Salon ● May 23, 2026
But the drawings appear strange, with the new edifice dwarfing all around it in a way that is disharmonious, dominating.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2026
On another Indonesian island—the small island of Flores—archaic humans underwent a process of dwarfing.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
