fauna
fau·na/ˈfɔːnə/noun
fauna is spelled F-A-U-N-A: 5 letters and 2 syllables (fau·na). It appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, fauna means “Animals considered as a group; especially those of a particular country, region, time, biological group, etc” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of fauna is faunae or faunas.
How many letters and syllables are in fauna?
| Letters | 5: F-A-U-N-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: fau·na |
| In writing | 3.3 times per million words; the 14,509th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is fauna?
Fauna appears 3.3 times per million words in written English, the 14,509th 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).
How do you pronounce fauna?
- /ˈfɔːnə/
Fauna has 2 syllables, split fau·na in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-fauna.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with fauna
Sounds like: fawner (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of fauna
- faunae plural
- faunas plural
- faunæ plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does fauna mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Animals considered as a group; especially those of a particular country, region, time, biological group, etc.
the flora and fauna
- 2
A particular group of animals as distinguished from another.
- 3
A book cataloguing the animals of a country.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Fauna in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense animals considered as a group:
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 fauna come from?
Borrowed from New Latin fauna, from Latin Fauna, sister of Faunus (“god of forests and herdsmen”); akin to Ancient Greek θαῦνον (thaûnon, “wild animal, beast”), θώς (thṓs, “jackal, wild dog; panther”), Phrygian δάος (dáos, “wolf”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).