hobgoblin
/hɑbˈɡɑb.lɪn/noun
hobgoblin is a noun meaning “A small, ugly goblin that makes trouble for humans” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled H-O-B-G-O-B-L-I-N and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 5 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of hobgoblin is hobgoblins.
What does hobgoblin mean?
noun
- 1
A small, ugly goblin that makes trouble for humans.
- 2
A source of dread, fear or apprehension; a bugbear.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce hobgoblin?
- UK /hɒbˈɡɒb.lɪn/
- US /hɑbˈɡɑb.lɪn/
Hobgoblin has 3 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-hobgoblin.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of hobgoblin
- hobgoblins plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is hobgoblin?
Hobgoblin appears about once in every 5 million words in written English, the 65,913th 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).
Hobgoblin in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | lutin, hobgoblin |
| Portuguese | hobgoblin |
| German | Schreckgespenst |
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 hobgoblin come from?
From hob (“elf”, from Hob, a variant of Rob, short for Robin Goodfellow, an elf in Germanic folklore) + goblin.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).