Join free

alf

English · Français · Deutsch · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

alf¹

Where it comes from

From Danish and Swedish alf, from Old Norse alfr; see also Dutch alf. Doublet of elf, awf, and oaf.

noun alfs · alfar

  1. Norse A supernatural being similar to an elf; one of the Dǫkkálfar or Ljósalfar. As the Scandinavians were at that time still worshippers of Thor and Odin, the belief in Alfs and Dwarfs accompanied them to their new abodes, and there, as elsewhere, survived the introduction of Christianity.

Alf²

  • /ælf/

Rhymes with -ælf

proper noun

  1. A diminutive of the male given names Alfred and Alfonso, from the Germanic languages.

noun Alfs

  1. Australia, derogatory, slang An uncultured Australian. Martin Sharp once described Sydney's western suburbs to me hazily as 'where the Alfs live'.

ALF³

proper noun

  1. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of Animal Liberation Front (name used by animal rights activists engaging in direct action).
  2. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of automatic letter facing: mechanical postal system introduced in the UK in 1957 to align the stamps to the correct position for the franking machine.
  3. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of assisted living facility

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: fal, wall, asf, faa, afl, laf, dark alfs, light alfs, alfar, elve, álfheimr, svartálfar, dwarf, svartálfaheimr, dellingr, hǫðr

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"alf." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/alf. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

alf. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/alf

Chicago

"alf." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/alf.

BibTeX
@misc{alf_2026,
  title = {alf},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/alf},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}