fank
/ˈfæŋk/noun, verb
fank is a noun meaning “A pen for enclosing sheep, mainly in the Scottish Highlands” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-A-N-K and has one syllable (fank), and it appears about once in every 27 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of fank is fanks.
What does fank mean?
noun
- 1
A pen for enclosing sheep, mainly in the Scottish Highlands.
verb
- 1
To place (sheep) in a pen.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce fank?
- /ˈfæŋk/
- [ˈfæŋk]
- /ˈfaŋk/
Fank has one syllable, split fank in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of fank
- fanks plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- fanking participle, present
- fanked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is fank?
Fank appears about once in every 27 million words in written English, the 157,761st 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).
Fank in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense pen for enclosing sheep:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Schafhürde |
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 fank come from?
From Scottish Gaelic fang, from Scots fank, perhaps ultimately related to archaic fang (“to seize, catch”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).