fonio
\fɔ.njo\
The verdict
“fonio” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - 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.
Corpus desk
Index FR-fonio · fonio · French
fonio · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fonio |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \fɔ.njo\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « fonio » en français
Rare enough to double-check
fonio is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \fɔ.njo\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for fonio in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is fonio, spelled F-O-N-I-O.
Definition
- 1Nom 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.
- 2Éleusine.
- 3Mil pénicillaire.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fonio appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il commençait à songer à sa capsule de cyanure quand, après un frugal déjeuner de fonio au lait caillé, on lui annonça une visite.
Les principales espèces herbacées de saison pluvieuse regroupent l’herbe de gamba (Andropogon gayanus), le gombi sogo (Loudetia togoensis), le fonio (Chloris lamproparia) et la paille de brousse (Schoenefeldia gracilis).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.