fonio
French, noun/fo.njo/
fonio is spelled F-O-N-I-O (5 letters) and appears about once in every 18 million words in written French, the 138,201st most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Fonio is a French masculine noun meaning “Digitaria exilis, a cereal cultivated in western Africa” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Nom vernaculaire de Digitaria exilis (fonio blanc) et D. ibura (fonio noir), céréales annuelles d’Afrique à…”.
What does fonio mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculineDigitaria exilis, a cereal cultivated in western Africa
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Nom vernaculaire de Digitaria exilis (fonio blanc) et D. ibura (fonio noir), céréales annuelles d’Afrique à petits grains de la famille des Poacées (Poaceae) et cultivées pour l’alimentation. 2. Éleusine. 3. Mil pénicillaire.
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 fonio
- fonios plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce fonio?
- /fo.njo/
- \fɔ.njo\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is fonio in French?
fonio appears about once in every 18 million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).