foin
/fɔɪn/noun
foin is a noun meaning “The beech marten (Martes foina, syn. Mustela foina)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-O-I-N, and it appears about once in every 68 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of foin is foins.
What does foin mean?
noun
- 1
The beech marten (Martes foina, syn. Mustela foina).
- 2
A kind of fur, black at the top on a whitish ground, taken from the ferret or weasel of the same name.
- 3
archaicA thrust.
They move their hands, steadfast their feet remain, / Nor blow nor foin they struck or thrust in vain.
verb
- 1
archaicTo thrust with a sword; to stab at.
- 2
archaicTo prick; to sting.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce foin?
- /fɔɪn/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-foin.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of foin
- foins plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- foining participle, present
- foined participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is foin?
Foin appears about once in every 68 million words in written English, the 258,950th 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).
Where does foin come from?
From French fouine (“a marten”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).