tengwar

T1E1N1G2W4A1R1
UK/ˈtɛŋ.ɡwɑː/US/ˈtɛŋ.ɡwɑɹ/

proper noun

A constructed script created by J. R. R. Tolkien for his invented Elvish constructed languages of Sindarin (ISO 639 code sjn) and Quenya (ISO 639 code qya).

RareScrabble 11

Meanings

tengwar1

noun
  1. pluralplural of tengwa

Tengwar2

proper noun
  1. A constructed script created by J. R. R. Tolkien for his invented Elvish constructed languages of Sindarin (ISO 639 code sjn) and Quenya (ISO 639 code qya).

    The translator uses the Tengwar script to display Sindarin.

    2016 January 20, Anna Sorokina, “Want to translate from English to Elvish? Yandex can help”, in Russia Beyond
    5 more examples

    He's now trying to arrange for a type font set in the Tengwar alphabet

    1969, Leland Sapiro, editor, Riverside Quarterly, volume 4, page 75

    For example, Unicode hasn't yet incorporated Tengwar (an elvish script) into its official repertoire (although it's on the roadmap—there are, after all, many maps of Middle Earth).

    2012, Jon Orwant, Programming Perl, →ISBN, page 311

    An innovative feature of the Tengwar is that the shapes of the individual letters were designed to record phonetic features

    2013, Simon Horobin, Does Spelling Matter?, →ISBN, page 36

    The first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in JRR Tolkien’s Tengwar script (transcribed from English).

    2019 September 13, Bettina Beinhoff, “Want to build a language from scratch? Start with the question who will speak it, and why”, in Scroll.in

    The poster for the mission, which is officially called NROL-101, sports a pretty clear Lord of the Rings theme, featuring a pair of interlocking golden rings and the phrase "goodness persists" written in both English and Elvish Tengwar script, the fictional language dreamed up entirely by author J.R.R. Tolkien himself.

    2020 November 9, Eric Mack, “Next US military spy satellite launch has inexplicable Lord of the Rings theme”, in cNet

Origin

Developed by J. R. R. Tolkien. From tengwar, the term Tolkien invented to represent the glyphs found in Tengwar. From tengwa, the singular of "tengwar", a single glyph.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian те́нгвар
  • те́нгвар (téngvar)Translations
Esperanto tengvaro
  • tengvaroTranslations
French tengwar
  • tengwarTranslations
German Tengwar
  • TengwarTranslations
Hindi टेंगवार
  • टेंगवार (ṭengvār)Translations
Italian tengwar
  • tengwarTranslations
Japanese テングワール
  • テングワールTranslations
Korean 텡과르
  • 텡과르 (tenggwareu)Translations
Persian تنگوار
  • تنگوارTranslations
Polish tengwar
  • tengwarTranslations
Russian те́нгвар
  • те́нгвар (téngvar)Translations
Spanish tengwar
  • tengwarTranslations

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

tengwar. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tengwar

MLA

“tengwar.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tengwar. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tengwar,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tengwar.

Source: tengwar on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.