heffalump
hef·fa·lump/ˈhɛfəˌlʌmp/noun
heffalump is spelled H-E-F-F-A-L-U-M-P: 9 letters and 3 syllables (hef·fa·lump). It appears about once in every 29 million words in written English, the 163,711th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, heffalump means “(A child's name for) an elephant” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of heffalump is heffalumps.
How many letters and syllables are in heffalump?
| Letters | 9: H-E-F-F-A-L-U-M-P |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: hef·fa·lump |
| In writing | about once in every 29 million words; the 163,711th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is heffalump?
Heffalump appears about once in every 29 million words in written English, the 163,711th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce heffalump?
- UK /ˈhɛfəlʌmp/
- US /ˈhɛfəˌlʌmp/
- US /-ˌləmp/
Heffalump has 3 syllables, split hef·fa·lump in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-heffalump.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of heffalump
- heffalumps plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does heffalump mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
(A child's name for) an elephant.
We went to the zoo and saw some heffalumps.
- 2
informalSomething that is elusive.
- 3
derogatoryslangA clumsy or overweight person.
noun
- 1
Alternative letter-case form of heffalump.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Heffalump in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense child's name for an elephant:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | éphélant, éfélant |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does heffalump come from?
Probably a childish mispronunciation of elephant, perhaps influenced by half a lump (as in "I'll have half a lump of sugar in my tea"), coined by the English author Alan Alexander Milne (1882–1956) as the name of an imaginary animal in his book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926). The animal was not described in the book, but the illustrator Ernest Howard Shepard (1879–1976) depicted it as an elephant. Sense 2 (“something which is elusive”) refers to the fact that in Milne’s book the characters Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet set a trap for, but are unable to capture, a heffalump.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).