Elf in Scrabble and Meaning

Lookup Word Points and Definitions

What does elf mean? Is elf a Scrabble word?

How many points in Scrabble is elf worth? elf how many points in Words With Friends? What does elf mean? Get all these answers on this page.

Scrabble® and Words with Friends® points for elf

See how to calculate how many points for elf.

Is elf a Scrabble word?

Yes. The word elf is a Scrabble US word. The word elf is worth 6 points in Scrabble:

E1L1F4

Is elf a Scrabble UK word?

Yes. The word elf is a Scrabble UK word and has 6 points:

E1L1F4

Is elf a Words With Friends word?

Yes. The word elf is a Words With Friends word. The word elf is worth 7 points in Words With Friends (WWF):

E1L2F4

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Valid words made from Elf

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Results

3-letter words (1 found)

ELF,

2-letter words (3 found)

EF,EL,FE,

1-letter words (1 found)

E,

You can make 5 words from elf according to the Scrabble US and Canada dictionary.

All 3 letters words made out of elf

elf lef efl fel lfe fle

Note: these 'words' (valid or invalid) are all the permutations of the word elf. These words are obtained by scrambling the letters in elf.

Definitions and meaning of elf

elf

Alternative forms

  • elve (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English elf, from Old English ielf, ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz. Ultimately probably derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (white). Doublet of alf and oaf.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: ĕlf, IPA(key): /ɛlf/
  • Rhymes: -ɛlf

Noun

elf (plural elves or (now nonstandard) elfs)

  1. (Norse mythology) A luminous spirit presiding over nature and fertility and dwelling in the world of Álfheim (Elfland). Compare angel, nymph, fairy.
  2. Any from a race of mythical, supernatural beings resembling but seen as distinct from human beings. They are usually delicate-featured and skilled in magic or spellcrafting; sometimes depicted as clashing with dwarves, especially in modern fantasy literature.
  3. (fantasy) Any of the magical, typically forest-guarding races bearing some similarities to the Norse álfar (through Tolkien's Eldar).
  4. A very diminutive person; a dwarf.
  5. (South Africa) The bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix).

Usage notes

The plural elves has always been more common than elfs. Elfs was notably used by Edmund Spenser (1579?; 1590; as elfes), Thomas Nashe (1594; as elfes), Peter Heylyn (1657), William Cleland (a. 1690), John Dryden (1700), Laurence Eusden (1717), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850), Sabine Baring-Gould (1868), Sidney Lanier (1877), and Paul Laurence Dunbar (1905). Some writers, including Andrew Brice (1760) and James Sibbald (1802), provided both plurals. Elfs was first listed as an alternative plural in A Dictionary of the English Language in 1818; others such as James Knowles’s A Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language (1835), James Bamford’s Elements of English Grammar (1844), and Henry Elliot Shepherd’s A Grammar of the English Language (1883) followed; but it gradually decreased in use and is now mostly considered nonstandard.

Synonyms

  • (supernatural creature): See goblin (hostile); fairy (small, mischievous)

Hyponyms

  • elfe
  • elven
  • wood elf, wood-elf

Derived terms

Related terms

  • elfin, elven, elvan
  • elvish

Descendants

  • Arabic: إِلْف (ʔilf)
  • Dutch: elf
  • French: elfe
  • German: Elf, Elfe
  • Japanese: エルフ (erufu)
  • Korean: 엘프 (elpeu)
  • Russian: эльф (elʹf)
  • Ukrainian: ельф (elʹf)

Translations

Verb

elf (third-person singular simple present elfs, present participle elfing, simple past and past participle elfed)

  1. (now rare) To twist into elflocks (of hair); to mat.

See also

  • dark elf & light elf
  • fairy
  • brownie
  • dwarf
  • hobbit
  • Eldar

References

  • Marshall Jones Company (1930). Mythology of All Races Series, Volume 2 Eddic, Great Britain: Marshall Jones Company, 1930, pp. 220-221.

Anagrams

  • EFL

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch elf, from Middle Dutch ellef, elf, from Old Dutch *ellef, from Proto-Germanic *ainalif.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛlf/

Numeral

elf

  1. eleven

Catalan

Noun

elf m (plural elfs)

  1. elf

Czech

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈɛlf]

Noun

elf m anim

  1. elf

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

  • elf in Příruční slovník jazyka českého, 1935–1957
  • elf in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛl(ə)f/
  • Hyphenation: elf
  • Rhymes: -ɛlf

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch ellef, elf, from Old Dutch *ellef, from Proto-Germanic *ainalif, a compound of *ainaz and *-lif. Compare German elf, West Frisian alve, English eleven, Danish elleve.

Numeral

elf

  1. eleven

Noun

elf f (plural elven, diminutive elfje n)

  1. The number eleven, or a representation thereof.
Descendants
  • Afrikaans: elf
  • Berbice Creole Dutch: alfu, elfu
  • Jersey Dutch: ālf
  • Negerhollands: elf, elef
  • Skepi Creole Dutch: elk
  • Sranan Tongo: erfu
    • Aukan: elufu
    • Saramaccan: elúfu

Etymology 2

Borrowed from German Elf, itself borrowed from English elf, from Old English ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz. Displaced native alf, from the same Germanic source.

Noun

elf m (plural elfen or elven, diminutive elfje n, feminine elve or elfin)

  1. elf, brownie (small folkloric creature)
  2. (fantasy) elf (humanoid pointy-eared creature in fantasy)
Synonyms
  • (mythical being): alf
Derived terms
  • boself
  • elfenbank
  • elfin
  • kerstelf
  • woudelf
Descendants
  • Papiamentu: èlfye (from the diminutive)

Anagrams

  • fel
  • lef

Dutch Low Saxon

Etymology

From Low German, from Middle Low German elvene, from Old Saxon ellevan. Related to German elf.

Numeral

elf

  1. eleven (11)

German

Alternative forms

  • eilf, eilff, eylf, eylff (all obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle High German eilf, eilef, einlif, from Old High German einlif, from Proto-Germanic *ainalif, a compound of *ainaz and *-lif. Until the 19th century usually written eilf; the monophthongal form is of Central and Low German origin (Middle Low German elf). Compare Dutch elf, West Frisian alve, English eleven, Danish elleve.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛlf/, [ʔɛlf]

Numeral

elf

  1. (cardinal number) eleven

Coordinate terms

Derived terms

  • Elf
  • elffach
  • Elfeck
  • elfeckig
  • elfstellig
  • elfstündig

Further reading

  • “elf” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • “elf” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • “elf” in Duden online
  • elf on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia de

German Low German

Alternative forms

  • eleve, ölve, ölven

Etymology

From Middle Low German elvene, from Old Saxon ellevan.

Numeral

elf

  1. eleven

Lombard

Etymology

From English elf.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛlf/
  • Hyphenation: elf

Noun

elf m (masculine plural elf, feminine singular elfa, feminine plural elfe) (New Lombard Orthography)

  1. (Norse mythology) elf
  2. (fantasy) elf

Derived terms

  • elfegh

Maltese

Etymology

From Arabic أَلْف (ʔalf).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛlf/

Numeral

elf m or f (dual elfejn, plural eluf or elufijiet, paucal elef)

  1. thousand

Middle English

Alternative forms

  • elfe, helfe

Etymology

From Old English elf, Anglian form of ælf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi, from Proto-Germanic *albiz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elbʰós (white).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛlf/

Noun

elf (plural elves)

  1. elf, fairy
  2. spirit, shade

Related terms

  • elven
  • elvyssh

Descendants

  • English: elf (see there for further descendants)
  • Scots: elf
  • Yola: elf

References

  • “elf, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-12.

Pennsylvania German

Etymology

From Rhine Franconian, from Old High German einlif. Compare German elf, Dutch elf, English eleven.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɛlf/

Numeral

elf

  1. eleven

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from German Elf.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛlf/
  • Rhymes: -ɛlf
  • Syllabification: elf

Noun

elf m animal (diminutive elfik)

  1. elf (mythical or fantasy creature)

Usage notes

Declension

Derived terms

Further reading

  • elf in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • elf in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French elfe.

Noun

elf m (plural elfi)

  1. elf

Declension

Swedish

Noun

elf c

  1. Obsolete spelling of älv

Declension

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English elf, from Old English ielf, from Proto-West Germanic *albi.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛɫɸ/

Noun

elf (plural elvès)

  1. fairy

References

  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 38

Source: wiktionary.org