Tolkien

American  

[tohl-keen, tol-] / ˈtoʊl kin, ˈtɒl- /

noun

1. J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) 1892–1973, English novelist, philologist, and teacher, born in South Africa.

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Tolkien British  

/ ˈtɒlkiːn /

noun

1. J ( ohn ) R ( onald ) R ( euel ). 1892–1973, British philologist and writer, born in South Africa. He is best known for The Hobbit (1937), the trilogy The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), and the posthumously published The Silmarillion (1977)

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Other Word Forms

• Tolkienesque
  adjective

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Tolkien

Eileen Elgar, who died in 1980, used to live near the Hotel Miramar in Bournemouth where Tolkien and his wife holidayed every year.

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

Their imaginations seem to have been fed on solely on “Starship Troopers” and little else except maybe some Tolkien.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 1, 2026

Tolkien once described his defining high fantasy in a frequently quoted letter as “a fundamentally religious and Catholic work.”

From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2026

"But as Tolkien wrote, it's the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay, small acts of kindness and love," he said.

From Barron's ● Feb. 3, 2026

The word dagorath meant “battle,” but Tolkien had spelled the word with just one “g,” not two.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline