goblin
Americannoun
-
goblins
plural
noun
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
Etymology
Origin of goblin
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English gobelin, from Middle French, from Middle High German kobold “goblin”; see kobold
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.
Vocabulary lists containing goblin
Unit 2, Words to Know
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A Mythical Menagerie
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Summer of the Monkeys
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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:
The new research, published in the Journal of Fish Biology, reports two healthy goblin sharks observed in the wild.
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
A programmer asked the bot why it called itself a goblin.
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 recently gave its popular ChatGPT strict instructions: Stop talking about goblins.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
After the issue was flagged by users and employees, OpenAI took steps to mitigate it, including telling its coding tool Codex not to refer to goblins unless relevant.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 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
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
I push past a trio of goblins and a troll and one of the Still Folk.
From "The Cruel Prince" by Holly Black
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.
