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• Pygmy
  Pygmy

  noun
• pygmy
  pygmy

  noun

  an abnormally undersized person

Pygmy

American  

[pig-mee] / ˈpɪg mi /

Or Pigmy

noun

Pygmies plural

1. Anthropology.

   1. a member of a small-statured people native to equatorial Africa.

   2. a Negrito of southeastern Asia, or of the Andaman or Philippine islands.

2. Disparaging and Offensive. pygmy, a small or dwarfish person.

3. pygmy, anything very small of its kind.

4. pygmy, a person who is of small importance, or who has some quality, attribute, etc., in very small measure.

5. Classical Mythology. (in theIliad ) one of a race of dwarfs who fought battles with cranes, who preyed on them and destroyed their fields.

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adjective

1. Often pygmy of or relating to the Pygmies.

2. pygmy, of very small size, capacity, power, etc.

pygmy ¹ British  

/ ˈpɪɡmɪ, pɪɡˈmiːən /

noun

1. an abnormally undersized person

2. something that is a very small example of its type

3. a person of little importance or significance

4. (modifier) of very small stature or size

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Pygmy ² British  

/ ˈpɪɡmɪ /

noun

1. a member of one of the dwarf peoples of Equatorial Africa, noted for their hunting and forest culture

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Pygmy Cultural  

1. A member of any ethnic group in which the average height of the adult male is less than four feet, eleven inches. There are Pygmy tribes in dense rain-forest areas of central Africa, southern India, Malaysia, and the Philippines. The most widely studied Pygmies are the Mbuti of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, who pursue a nomadic hunting and gathering subsistence (see nomadism and hunting and gathering societies), but have established complex interdependent relationships with their non-Pygmy farming neighbors.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pygmyism
  noun
• pygmaean
  adjective
• pygmoid
  adjective
• pygmyish
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Pygmies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Pygmy

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English pigmēis, plural of pigmē, from Latin Pygmaeus, from Greek pygmaîos “dwarfish” (adjective), Pygmy (noun), equivalent to pyg(mḗ) ) “distance from elbow to knuckles” + -aios adjective suffix

Explanation

A member of an ethnic group whose people tend to be very short or small is a pygmy. Anthropologists sometimes study pygmy groups. The term pygmy, while still used by many who study and write about world cultures and groups, is somewhat old-fashioned and can be offensive to members of these cultures. Anthropologists often refer to groups in which men are on average shorter than four feet eleven inches tall as pygmies, though for the most part these people prefer to be known by their ethnicity. Pygmy comes from the Greek word pugmaios, or "dwarf."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Pygmy pygmy Pygmies

Pygmy rattlesnakes showed especially high rates of snake fungal disease.

From Science Daily ● May 26, 2026

Pygmy hippos are much smaller than their river cousins and critically endangered, with fewer than 2,500 believed to remain in the wild.

From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2025

Pygmy slow loris are a species of primate that comes from the rainforests and bamboo thickets of Vietnam, Laos, eastern Cambodia and southern China.

From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2025

Pygmy hippos can be housed and supported at a much lower cost.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2024

“Mum, can I have a Pygmy Puff?” said Ginny at once.

From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling

When you’re a consulting detective—even one who happens to be a pygmy shrew—trouble often has a way of finding you.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

The Andes virus, which circulates in Argentina and Chile and is mainly spread among the long-tailed pygmy rice rat, is the only hantavirus strain known to be able to transmit from human to human.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026

The strain on the cruise ship is mostly spread by long-tailed pygmy rice rats via their saliva, feces or urine.

From Salon ● May 11, 2026

Around 61,000 years ago, the pygmy elephant population declined sharply.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 19, 2026

My dad was like a thirteen-thousand-pound elephant freaking out over an itty-bitty African pygmy mouse.

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas

A study which compared the different heights of Victorian youths, based on their class and their income - On British Pygmies and Giants - makes particularly shocking reading.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2016

With more genetic research into modern peoples, such as Tibetans in Asia, Pygmies in Africa, and Natives in the Americas, the significance of ancient and modern DNA studies is reverberating around the planet.

From Forbes ● Jun. 24, 2015

Eddie Izzard goes looking for his distant relatives among the Bakola Pygmies of Cameroon.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 20, 2013

“There were Pygmies in this village,” Kimball recalled.

From New York Times ● Oct. 14, 2012

In contrast, the next two groups, the Pygmies and Khoisan, include hunter-gatherers without crops or livestock.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond