dwarf

noun, often attributive \ ˈdwȯrf \

Updated on: 10 Apr 2018

plural dwarfs play \ˈdwȯrfs\ also dwarves play \ˈdwȯrvz\

1 a : a person of unusually small stature (see stature 1); especially : a person whose height does not exceed 4' 10" and is typically less than 4' 5"

b : an insignificant person

a literary dwarf

2 : an animal or plant much below normal size

3 folklore : a small legendary manlike being who is usually misshapen and ugly and skilled as a craftsman

4 astronomy : a star (such as the sun) of ordinary or low luminosity and relatively small mass and size

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dwarfish

play \ˈdwȯr-fish\ adjective

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dwarfishly

adverb

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dwarfishness

noun

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dwarflike

play \ˈdwȯrf-ˌlīk\ adjective

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dwarfness

play \ˈdwȯrf-nəs\ noun

See dwarf defined for English-language learners

See dwarf defined for kids

Examples of dwarf in a Sentence

Shetland ponies are the dwarfs of the horse world.
Snow White and the seven dwarfs.

Recent Examples of dwarf from the Web

Pluto is the underdog that's been called a planet and then not a planet, but New Horizons put it back in the spotlight as a fascinating ice dwarf that has surprises in store and is still guarding many mysteries.

— ashley strickland, CNN, "Still missing Cassini? Here's what else is out there," 9 Oct. 2017
Last Saturday, the Breakthrough Listen project turned its Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia towards in the direction of FRB 121102, which a recent study found emanates from a dim, dwarf galaxy in the constellation Auriga.

— jason daley, Smithsonian, "Astronomers Detect 15 Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts From a Distant Galaxy," 31 Aug. 2017
For one, the (actual) star in this announcement is an ultracool dwarf that is about the size of Jupiter, much different than our star.

— chau tu, Slate Magazine, "NASA’s New Exoplanets Aren’t Where the Aliens Live.," 22 Feb. 2017
This robotic instrument in Chile searches for planets around the 60 brightest ultracool dwarfs.

— National Geographic, "New Earth-Size Planets Would Be Nothing Like Earth," 2 May 2016
In 2016, astronomers tracked its origin to a dwarf galaxy about 3 billion light years away.

— avery thompson, Popular Mechanics, "Scientists Spot 15 Mysterious Radio Bursts From a Distant Galaxy," 31 Aug. 2017
The third group, the Araneomorphae, includes 5500 jumping spiders, 4500 dwarf spiders, 2400 wolf spiders, and thousands of web spinners.

— elizabeth pennisi, Science | AAAS, "Spider genes put a new spin on arachnids’ potent venoms, stunning silks, and surprising history," 19 Oct. 2017
Meet the dwarf Haumea, named after a Hawaiian goddess, has a closest approach to the Sun of 35 Astronomical Units (AU, the typical distance between the Earth and Sun).

— john timmer, Ars Technica, "Odd, potato-shaped dwarf planet has ring, may not be a planet," 11 Oct. 2017
Shara could see the same star going through dwarf-nova outbursts (those moments of flickering brightness) in 1934, 1935 and 1942.

— lorraine boissoneault, Smithsonian, "The Secret Lives of Cannibal Stars Revealed, Thanks to 15th Century Korean Astronomers," 31 Aug. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dwarf.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of dwarf

Middle English dwerg, dwerf, from Old English dweorg, dweorh; akin to Old High German twerg dwarf

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: before 12th century

See Words from the same year

dwarf Synonyms

Other Mythology and Folklore Terms

elysian, fay, muse, nimbus, phoenix

dwarf

verb

transitive verb

1 : to restrict the growth of : stunt

children dwarfed by malnutrition

2 : to cause to appear smaller or to seem inferior

dwarfed by his older brother

has dwarfed the achievements of her predecessors

intransitive verb

: to become smaller

See dwarf defined for English-language learners

Examples of dwarf in a Sentence

shrubs dwarfed by the lack of water

Recent Examples of dwarf from the Web

Although Republican groups spent heavily on Saccone's behalf, his campaign fundraising was dwarfed by Lamb's — limiting the effectiveness of Republican spending.

— rebecca berg, CNN, "GOP keeps up hope amid challenge in key California battleground," 7 Apr. 2018
With barely 20 million users, Facebook was dwarfed by MySpace, 10 times its size.

— owen thomas, San Francisco Chronicle, "How Facebook’s platform made it worth billions — and set it up for a fall," 20 Mar. 2018
Deutsche Bank’s asset-management business is dwarfed in revenue by the lender’s deal-advisory, trading and retail-banking businesses, but it is valued for its relatively steady profits.

— jenny strasburg, WSJ, "Deutsche Bank Asset-Management IPO Pricing Values Unit at Up to $8.9 Billion," 12 Mar. 2018
Those amounts are dwarfed by the largess of other major contributors.

— eric lipton and alexander burns, New York Times, "The True Source of the N.R.A.’s Clout: Mobilization, Not Donations," 24 Feb. 2018
These works, representative of only a small percentage of the show’s roughly 600 artifacts, are further dwarfed by the Jewish Museum’s holdings of nearly 30,000 objects.

— meilan solly, Smithsonian, "The Evolution of Jewish Identity Takes Center Stage at Revamped Jewish Museum Exhibition," 20 Feb. 2018
The fundraising totals from both sides will likely be dwarfed by money from outside groups once the race heats up.

— seth a. richardson, cleveland.com, "Mike DeWine has huge cash advantage in Ohio governor's race; Richard Cordray raises $2 million," 31 Jan. 2018
But while hard to ignore, the similarities between the pair are dwarfed by the differences.

— paul myerberg, USA TODAY, "Alabama meets Georgia in College Football Playoff final: Mirror images, striking differences," 3 Jan. 2018
In the jubilation after a depleted and dwarfed and dissed Kansas State team had gritted past Kentucky on Thursday at Philips Arena, K-State coach Bruce Weber urged star guard Barry Brown Jr. nearby to go into the stands to join family and friends.

— vahe gregorian, kansascity, "K-State creates 'snapshot' that will last forever ... perhaps with more to come | The Kansas City Star," 23 Mar. 2018

Origin and Etymology of dwarf

see ¹dwarf

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: circa 1626

See Words from the same year

dwarf Synonyms

Synonyms

stunt, suppress;

Near Antonyms

advance, boost, encourage, forward, foster, nourish, nurture, promote;

balk, block, hold back, impede, obstruct, stem;

diminish, downsize, shrink;

dwarf

adjective

of a plant

: low-growing in habit

a dwarf peach tree

dwarfer forms of citrus

See dwarf defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of dwarf from the Web

Dwarf planet Ceres, found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, sports a weirdly tall and lonely mountain: Ahuna Mons.

— liz kruesi, Discover Magazine, "Ceres Hosts an Ice Volcano," 21 Dec. 2016
Dwarf irises Why grow them: My bright-purple reticulatas reliably bloom in the first weeks of March, sticking their speckled tongues out at raging wind.

— susan clotfelter, The Denver Post, "Ten plants that even a black-thumb gardener can’t kill," 31 Mar. 2017

Origin and Etymology of dwarf

see ¹dwarf

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1597

See Words from the same year

Other Botany Terms

annual, burgeon, chloroplast, nomenclature, succulent, sylvan, xylem

Financial Definition of DWARF

dwarf

noun

What It Is

In the mortgage business, a dwarf is a group of mortgage-backed securities that mature in fewer than 15 years. The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA or Fannie Mae) issues dwarves.

How It Works

Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) are securities that represent an interest in a pool of mortgage loans. Let's assume you want to buy a house, so you get a mortgage from XYZ Bank. XYZ Bank transfers money into your account, and you agree to repay the money according to a set schedule. XYZ Bank (which could also be a thrift, credit union, or other originator) may then choose to hold the mortgage in its portfolio (i.e., simply collect the interest and principal payments over the next several years) or sell it.

If XYZ Bank sells the mortgage, it gets cash to make other loans. So let's assume that XYZ Bank sells your mortgage to Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae groups your mortgage with similar mortgages it has already purchased (referred to as "pooling" the mortgages). The mortgages in the pool have common characteristics (i.e., similar interest rates, maturities). Pools that mature in fewer than 15 years make up dwarves.

Fannie Mae then sells securities that represent an interest in the dwarves, of which your mortgage is a small part (called securitizing the pool). It sells these MBS to investors in the open market. With the funds from the sale of the MBS, Fannie Mae can purchase more mortgages and create more MBS.

Why It Matters

For investors, an MBS is much like a bond, and dwarves are relatively short-term bonds in this sense However, it is important to note that payments that are part interest and part principal could be unfavorable to some dwarf investors, because with each decrease in outstanding principal there is a corresponding decrease in the amount of interest that accrues. The return of principal could also vary depending on how quickly the underlying mortgages are repaid.

Fannie Mae guarantees the timely payment of interest and principal on the MBS they issue -- that is, if the borrowers do not make their mortgage payments on time, Fannie Mae will still make timely interest and principal payments to their MBS investors. It is important to note that the U.S. government does not guarantee Fannie Mae. That is, if it cannot fulfill their obligations to its MBS investors, the government has no responsibility to rescue it.

Source: Investing Answers

DWARF Defined for English Language Learners

dwarf

verb

: to make (something) look very small or unimportant when compared with something else

dwarf

adjective

of a plant or animal : smaller than normal size

DWARF Defined for Kids

dwarf

noun \ ˈdwȯrf \

plural dwarfs \ˈdwȯrfs\ also dwarves \ˈdwȯrvz\

1 : a person, animal, or plant much smaller than normal size

2 : a creature in legends that is usually pictured as a small person who is skilled at some craft

dwarf

verb

dwarfed; dwarfing

: to cause to appear smaller Our car was dwarfed by the giant redwood trees.

dwarf

adjective

: of less than the usual size

dwarf pine trees

Medical Dictionary

dwarf

noun, often attributive \ ˈdwȯ(ə)rf \

plural dwarfs play \ˈdwȯ(ə)rfs\ also dwarves play \ˈdwȯ(ə)rvz\

1 : a person of unusually small stature; especially : a person whose height does not exceed 4 feet 10 inches (1.47 meters) and is typically less than 4 feet 5 inches (1.35 meters)

2 : an animal much below normal size