fauna
/ˈfɔːnə/
"fauna" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fauna” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #14,534 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #14,534
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Animals considered as a group; especially those of a particular country, region, time.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fauna |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɔːnə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #14,534 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fauna” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fauna is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɔːnə/. Corpus data places it at rank #14,534 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for fauna, with forms such as "afuna", "fanua", and "fauan". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fun", "fund", "funk", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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”). The correct English form is fauna, spelled F-A-U-N-A.
Definition
- 1Animals considered as a group; especially those of a particular country, region, time.
- 2A book, cataloguing the animals of a country.
Etymology
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”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: afuna,fanua,fauan,faunna,ffauna,fuana
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fauna - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “fauna”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-A-U-N-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfɔːnə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fun” - see the side-by-side comparison. fauna vs fun
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.