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gnome1

Pronunciation: /nəʊm/

Translate gnome | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of gnome

noun

  • a legendary dwarfish creature supposed to guard the earth’s treasures underground.
  • a small garden ornament in the form of a bearded man with a pointed hat.
  • informal a small ugly person: a grizzled gnome of a man
  • informal a person regarded as having secret or sinister influence in financial matters:the gnomes of Zurich

Derivatives

gnomish

adjective

Origin:

mid 17th century: from French, from modern Latin gnomus, a word used by Paracelsus as a synonym of Pygmaeus, denoting a mythical race of very small people said to inhabit parts of Ethiopia and India (compare with pygmy)

gnome in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of gnome in the US English dictionary

Nearby words

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