Meanings
elve1
plural elves
- obsoleteObsolete form of elf.
Sir Olof, he rode out at early day, / And so came he unto an Elve-dance gay.
1 more example
Is it the offspring of thoughtless animal spirits, or the elve of fancy continually flitting round the expected pleasure?
1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Oxford, published 2009, page 61
elve2
plural elves · alternative ELVE · alternative ELVES
- astronomyA rapidly expanding disk-shaped region of red luminosity in the ionosphere, lasting less than a thousandth of a second, which occurs high above energetic cloud-to-ground lightning of positive or negative polarity.
It is likely that the first elve was recorded with the Space Shuttle low-light camera.
2006, Martin Füllekrug, Eugene A. Mareev, Michael J. Rycroft, Sprites, elves and intense lightning discharges, page 37
Origin
elve · noun
From e(mission of) l(ight and) v(ery low-frequency perturbations from) e(lectromagnetic pulse sources), and to avoid clashing with the acronym ELF (extremely low frequency) used in the same field of science.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 淘氣精靈 /淘气精灵
- 淘氣精靈 /淘气精灵 (táoqì jīnglíng)Translations
French elfe
- elfeTranslations
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with elve
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
elve. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/elve
“elve.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/elve. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “elve,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/elve.
Source: elve on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.