volva
/ˈvɜːlvə/noun
volva is a noun meaning “A cup-shaped mass at the base of various fungi” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled V-O-L-V-A, and it appears about once in every 58 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of volva is völvas or volvas.
What does volva mean?
noun
- 1
A cup-shaped mass at the base of various fungi.
- 2
The membranous covering which completely encloses many fungi in the early stage of growth.
- 3
Alternative form of völva.
noun
- 1
In Old Norse society, a female practitioner of magic divination and prophecy.
- 2
Any prophetess, sooth-sayer, or witch.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce volva?
- UK /ˈvɜːlvə/
- UK /ˈvɒlvə/
- UK /ˈvəʊlvə/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of volva
- völvas plural
- volvas plural
- volvae plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is volva?
Volva appears about once in every 58 million words in written English, the 237,177th 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).
Volva in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense in Old Norse society, a female practitioner of magic divination and prophecy:
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 volva come from?
Borrowed from Latin volva.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).