Dwarf or dwarves may refer to:

Common uses

Dwarf (folklore) A dwarf () is a type of supernatural being in Germanic folklore, including mythology. Accounts of dwarfs vary significantly throughout history however they are commonly, but not exclusively, presented as living in mountains or stones and being ski ...

, a being from Germanic mythology and folklore * Dwarf, a person or animal with

dwarfism Dwarfism is a condition wherein an organism is exceptionally small, and mostly occurs in the animal kingdom. In humans, it is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than , regardless of sex; the average adult height among people with dw ...

Arts, entertainment, and media

Fictional entities

* Dwarf (''Dungeons & Dragons''), a humanoid race *

Dwarf (Middle-earth) In the Tolkien's legendarium, fantasy of J. R. R. Tolkien, the Dwarves are a race inhabiting Middle-earth, the central continent of Arda (Tolkien), Arda in an imagined mythological past. They are based on the Dwarf (mythology), dwarfs of German ...

, a humanoid race in J. R. R. Tolkien's literature * Dwarf (''Warhammer''), a humanoid race * Dwarfs (''Discworld''), a race of characters * Dwarves (''Artemis Fowl''), a race of characters * Dwarves (''Warcraft''), a short, strong race *

Dwarves (Marvel Comics) There are different types of fictional dwarves appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The most common of the Dwarves are the ones that are based on the dwarves of Norse mythology. They frequently appear in stories featurin ...

Literature

* ''The Dwarf'' (Cho novel), a 1978 novel by Cho Se-hui * ''The Dwarf'' (Lagerkvist novel), a 1944 novel by Pär Lagerkvist

Other arts, entertainment, and media

* ''Dwarfs?!'' (video game) * Dwarves (band), American punk band * Killer Dwarfs, Canadian heavy metal band * Wrocław's dwarfs, small sculptures in Wrocław, Poland

Biology

Phyletic dwarfism Phyletic dwarfism is the decrease in average size of animals of a species. There are a few circumstances that often lead to species doing this. Lack of predators of smaller creatures can allow smaller members of a species to survive. The lack of ...

, an average decrease in size of animals **

Insular dwarfism Insular dwarfism, a form of phyletic dwarfism, is the process and condition of large animals evolving or having a reduced body size when their population's range is limited to a small environment, primarily islands. This natural process is dist ...

, a evolutionary condition caused by genetic and environmental factors (e.g. no / little predators and smaller geography)

Cosmology

Dwarf galaxy A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of about 1000 up to several billion stars, as compared to the Milky Way's 200–400 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which closely orbits the Milky Way and contains over 30 billion stars, is s ...

, in cosmology *

Dwarf planet A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to ...

, in cosmology

Other uses

* Dwarf, Kentucky * DWARF, a debugging data format * PYGMIES + DWARFS arguments