# Wolfe

/ˈwʊɫf/ (US)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/wolfe
Updated: 2026-08-15

## Senses

### 1. a surname

noun · CEFR B2

a common last name for people in English or German-speaking areas.

For teachers: a surname of English or German origin, derived from the given name or the animal.

- The famous author Tom Wolfe wrote many influential books in the twentieth century.
- The professor introduced Dr. Wolfe as the keynote speaker for the upcoming linguistics conference in Berlin.

### 2. the animal

noun · CEFR C2 · Archaic

an old way of spelling the word 'wolf', a wild animal like a large dog.

For teachers: an obsolete orthographic variant of 'wolf', referring to the carnivorous mammal Canis lupus.

- In the very old book, the hunter chased a large grey wolfe through the woods.
- Scholars noted that the sixteenth-century manuscript consistently used the spelling 'wolfe' when describing the local fauna.

## Examples

- The wolf howls at the moon in the forest.
- Farmers in the valley are worried because a wolf was seen near the sheep yesterday.
- The reintroduction of the gray wolf to the national park had a profound effect on the local ecosystem, eventually altering the flow of rivers by changing elk behavior.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.