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"What is a hobbit?" wrote J.R.R. Tolkien in the 1937 fantasy novel that introduced Mr. Bilbo Baggins. The author then answered himself: "They are (or were) little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. ... There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along ..." Tolkien tells us that hobbits "are inclined to be fat," and that they "dress in bright colours"; they "have good-natured faces, and deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner)." Tolkien, a professional linguist who taught at Oxford, coined the word hobbit (and many other terms—in fact, a whole new language) for The Hobbit and for his enormously popular three-part novel The Lord of the Rings.
Examples of hobbit in a Sentence
Brian Moylan, Vulture, 17 Oct. 2025
Other things have held his attention for this year’s six-show season at his cozy, two-stage Maverick Theater, including Shakespeare, singing hobbits, King Kong and space alien grave robbers.
—Christopher Smith, Oc Register, 10 Sep. 2025
The Fairy Garden is an unexpected find, resembling a hobbit garden, riddled with rocks that have been fashioned into tiny stone houses with brightly hued doors.
—Jeanine Barone, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
The latest find suggests there might have been a link between the populations on Flores and Sulawesi — and that perhaps Sulawesi was a stepping stone for the hobbits on Flores, according to the authors of the new research, who have studied sites on Flores.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 7 Aug. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Hobbit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hobbit. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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