foxfire
fox·fire/ˈfɑksˌfaɪ(ə)ɹ/noun
foxfire is a noun meaning “Bioluminescence created by some types of fungus, particularly those growing on rotting wood” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-O-X-F-I-R-E and has 2 syllables (fox·fire), and it appears about once in every 15 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of foxfire is foxfires.
What does foxfire mean?
noun
- 1
USBioluminescence created by some types of fungus, particularly those growing on rotting wood.
- 2
Wood exhibiting fungal bioluminescence; torchwood.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce foxfire?
- UK /ˈfɒksfaɪə/
- US /ˈfɑksˌfaɪ(ə)ɹ/
Foxfire has 2 syllables, split fox·fire in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-foxfire.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of foxfire
- foxfires plural
- fox fire
- fox-fire
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is foxfire?
Foxfire appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 115,751st 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 foxfire come from?
Possibly from fox + fire, though the semantic connection is unclear. Alternatively, the first element may be ultimately from Old French fols (“false”), or the term may derive by folk etymology from phosphor.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).