fauve
French, noun/fov/
fauve is spelled F-A-U-V-E (5 letters) and appears 3.0 times per million words in written French, the 15,828th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Fauve is a French masculine noun meaning “tawny-coloured animal” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Animal, bête, de couleur fauve”.
What does fauve mean in English?
adjective
- 1
tawny
- 2
archaicraresavage, fierce (having the ferocity of a wild animal)
- 3
raredangerous, wild
- 4
fauvist
noun
- 1
datedmasculinetawny-coloured animal
- 2
masculinea big cat, such as a lion or lynx
- 3
masculinebeast, wild animal, especially fierce, aggressive, or predatory. Usually implies adding big bears like the Black, Brown and Polar ones. Sometimes extends up to the wolverine, wolf, etc. More rarely, big, aggressive and/or hard to meet cervid game might go under this umbrella term as well.
- 4
masculinea violent or aggressive man or woman
- 5
masculinea brownish orange color, tawny
- 6
masculineobsoleteexaminer
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. De la couleur ocre orangé à roux. #AD4F09 2. Qui a la violence, l’avidité, la férocité d’une bête fauve. 3. Sauvage, dangereux, ayant un rapport animal par opposition avec l’être humain. 4. Qui est relatif au fauvisme.
noun: 1. Animal, bête, de couleur fauve. 2. Félin de grande taille. 3. Animal féroce, dangereux, avec un comportement de prédateur. 4. Homme à l’aspect puissant, souple et avec une forte personnalité, pouvant être rapproché avec un animal.
noun: 1. Sol jaune, peu épais, renfermant quelques pierres.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of fauve
- fauves plural
- fauvés plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce fauve?
- /fov/
- \fov\
- \fo.ve\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to fauve
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is fauve in French?
fauve appears 3.0 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).