goblin
Americannoun
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.
The rare, and many say ugly, goblin shark is seen alive for the first time.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 12, 2026
Spielberg turned one of science fiction’s grandest ideas — first contact with alien life — into the story of a boy and his weird little space-faring goblin best friend.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 11, 2026
That prompted OpenAI to publish new instructions for its coding tool to limit goblin mentions.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026
While since retired, it said its testing found the personality was responsible for 66.7% of all "goblin" mentions in ChatGPT.
From BBC • Apr. 30, 2026
During the war, we questioned captured goblin soldiers, and they told us rumors that Ghohg is not from this world but is some kind of awful gosh-knows-what from gosh-knows-where.
From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
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.
