SYLPH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sylph mean? 

• SYLPH (noun)
  The noun SYLPH has 2 senses:

1. a slender graceful young woman

2. an elemental being believed to inhabit the air

  Familiarity information: SYLPH used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SYLPH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A slender graceful young woman

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("sylph" is a kind of...):

adult female; woman (an adult female person (as opposed to a man))

Sense 2

Meaning:

An elemental being believed to inhabit the air

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("sylph" is a kind of...):

imaginary being; imaginary creature (a creature of the imagination; a person that exists only in legends or myths or fiction)

 Context examples 

You shall sojourn at Paris, Rome, and Naples: at Florence, Venice, and Vienna: all the ground I have wandered over shall be re-trodden by you: wherever I stamped my hoof, your sylph's foot shall step also.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And, Miss Eyre, so much was I flattered by this preference of the Gallic sylph for her British gnome, that I installed her in an hotel; gave her a complete establishment of servants, a carriage, cashmeres, diamonds, dentelles, &c.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)