Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Sylph |
SylphNoun1. A slender graceful young woman. 2. An elemental being believed to inhabit the air. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "sylph" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1808. (references) |
Etymology: Sylph \Sylph\, noun. [French expression sylphe, m., from the Greek expression kind of grub, beetle, or moth; -- so called by Paracelsus.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | SYLPH, n. An immaterial but visible being that inhabited the air when the air was an element and before it was fatally polluted with factory smoke, sewer gas and similar products of civilization. Sylphs were allied to gnomes, nymphs and salamanders, which dwelt, respectively, in earth, water and fire, all now insalubrious. Sylphs, like fowls of the air, were male and female, to no purpose, apparently, for if they had progeny they must have nested in accessible places, none of the chicks having ever been seen. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Jupiter | Allah, Bathala, Brahm, Brahma, Brahma, cloud-compeller, Devi, Durga, Kali, oread, the Great Spirit, Ushas; water nymph, wood nymph; Yama, Varuna, Zeus; Vishnu, Siva, Shiva, Krishna, Juggernath, Buddha; Isis, Osiris, Ra; Belus, Bel, Baal, Asteroth; Thor, Odin; Mumbo Jumbo; good genius, tutelary genius; demiurge, familiar; sibyl; fairy, fay; sylph, sylphid; Ariel, peri, nymph, nereid, dryad, seamaid, banshee, benshie, Ormuzd; Oberon, Mab, hamadryad, naiad, mermaid, kelpie, Ondine, nixie, sprite; denizens of the air; pixy; (bad spirit). |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Sylph |
| English words defined with "sylph": Sylphid, Sylphine. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "sylph": Glendoveer' ♦ Sylphs. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "sylph": Sylphid. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | "A view of the running fight of 3 hours & 40 m. between the U. S. fleet under command of Comdr. Isaac Chauncey, and the British fleet of a superior force commanded by Sir James L. Yeo, on Lake Ontario, the 11th of September 1813". Color-tinted drawing by Masters Mate Peter W. Spicer, who served on board USS Sylph during this action. Ships depicted are listed in Photo # NH 75734-KN -- complete caption. The fleets are in two parallel lines, with the American fleet above. Credit: NAVY. |  | Miss Nelson as the Mountain Sylph. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Sylph" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Sylph" is used about 4 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 4 | 175,879 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "sylph": sylph-like. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
sylph | 41 |
super sylph | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "sylph"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | shtojzovalle (Nix), grua elegante. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | السلف كائن خرافي يعيش بالسماء. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | вид колибри с раздвоена опашка, нежна жена, нежна девойка, изящна жена, изящна девойка, дух на ефира. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | جن هواءی , روح یاموجودساکن درهوا. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | sylphe. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Luftgeist. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | νεράιδα (brownie, fairy, mermaid, naiad, nereid, nymph, pixy, water nymph). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | יעלת חן (beauty, graceful woman), ער" תמיר". (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | tündér (elf, Faerie, fairy, Fay, genie, pixie, pixy, sprite, urchin), szilf, karcsú magas nő. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | bidadari (angel, beautiful woman, fairy, nymph). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | silfo. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | シルト岩 (old age, seat for seniors and handicapped, siltstone, silver, silver fox, silver gray, silver market, silver phone, silver plan, silver single, silver tone, silver volunteer, silver wedding, Silver-On-Line). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | シルフ . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | shang (emaciated, gaunt, gracile, lank, lanky, lean, skinny, slender, slight, slim, sylph-like, thin, thin in build, willowy). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ylphsay sílfide, mulher esbelta. (various references) silf. (various references) сильф. (various references) vazdušni duh. (various references) silfo, sílfide. (various references) sylfid. (various references) หญิงสาวหรือเ"็กสาวรูปร่างแบบบาง. (various references) ince ve narin kız, hava perisi, güzel kız (a smasher of a girl, beautiful girl, beauty, dish, doll, eyefull, juicy girl, nymph, pretty girl, rose, smasher). (various references) сильфіда, сильф, граціозна жінка. (various references) thiên thần thiếu nữ thon thả mảnh mai. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "sylph": sylphic, sylphid, sylphids, sylphish, sylphlike, sylphs, sylphy. (additional references) | |
| |
"Sylph" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: nylph, selph, Silf, siloh, slyh, slyph, slyth, sulph, sylch, sylf, sylh, sylphe, symph, syphl, syplh. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "h-l-p-s-y" | |
-1 letter: hyps, syph. | |
-2 letters: hyp, ply, shy, sly, spy. | |
-3 letters: sh. | |
| Words containing the letters "h-l-p-s-y" | |
+1 letter: glyphs, lymphs, plashy, plushy, poshly, sylphs, sylphy. | |
+2 letters: alphyls, apishly, phenyls, phyllos, phytols, plushly, pushily, shapely, sharply, shlumpy, splashy, sylphic, sylphid. | |
+3 letters: impishly, ladyship, mesophyl, mopishly, oxyphils, phylaxis, phyleses, phylesis, physical, plushily, popishly, splotchy, subphyla, sulphury, sylphids, sylphish, syphilis, uppishly. | |
+4 letters: anaglyphs, aphyllies, biphenyls, blasphemy, copyholds, diphenyls, foppishly, haplessly, holotypes, homoplasy, horseplay, hypergols, hypoblast, hypostyle, ladyships, lumpishly, lymphomas, lynchpins, mesophyll, mesophyls, naphthyls, oxyphiles, peevishly, pettishly, phrasally, phyllites, phyllodes, phylloids, phyllomes, physicals, piggishly, platyfish, playhouse, polymaths, polyphase, prudishly, psychical, puckishly, slaphappy, splashily, sprightly, subphylum, sylphlike, synalepha, triglyphs, unshapely, waspishly. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Images: Photo Album | 5. Usage Frequency 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Anagrams 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
