hobbit
Americannoun
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hobbits
plural
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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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
See Examples For:
Mock, who reread The Lord of the Rings every year from fourth grade through ninth grade, has simpler dreams: “a hobbit hole out in the countryside, and as little as possible.”
From Slate ● May 28, 2026
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
Astin, known for portraying Frodo’s loyal hobbit friend, Samwise Gamgee, in the Peter Jackson-directed fantasy trilogy, now finds himself headed to a different kind of stage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2025
To these four volumes there was added in Westmarch a fifth containing commentaries, genealogies, and various other matter concerning the hobbit members of the Fellowship.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Colbert is planning to adapt chapters three to eight of The Fellowship of the Ring, in which Frodo and his fellow hobbits begin their epic quest.
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2026
"Summer rainfall fell and river-beds became seasonally dry, placing stress on both hobbits and their prey."
From Science Daily ● Feb. 19, 2026
But the three in the back had better be hobbits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
Here, it was pure joy to watch HORA’s actors embrace their inner hobbits, dwarves, wizards, orcs and elves — including one that yodels!
From New York Times ● May 10, 2024
Not even an eagle poised against the sun would have marked the hobbits sitting there, under the weight of doom, silent, not moving, shrouded in their thin grey cloaks.
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.
