elves

American

[elvz] / ɛlvz /

noun

plural of elf.

elves British

/ ɛlvz /

noun

the plural of elf

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

elves Cultural

Often small, mischievous creatures thought to have magical powers. Although some elves are friendly to humans, others are spiteful and destructive. Elves have long been a staple of folklore, from Germanic mythology to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, in which the elves speak a special language called Elvish.

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.

More than 25,000 people attend the annual SantaCon event in New York City, dressed up as Santa Claus, elves and other holiday characters.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026

“They are literally magical elves and they make this happen.”

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2025

"All the other children were dressed as elves," she said.

From BBC • Dec. 5, 2025

Brownies at that time was a strange organization in which the girls were divided into groups named after different kinds of fairies—pixies, elves and gnomes were the groups in our outfit.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 2, 2025

It was around that time that Fernanda got the impression that the house was filling up with elves.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023