Words Starting with F

Browse word origins and etymology

F

The sixth letter of the English alphabet, representing primarily the voiceless labiodental fricative sound /f/.

Fève

A bean, especially a broad bean, or the small figurine traditionally hidden inside a French Twelfth-Night cake.

Félix

A Latin name meaning “happy,” “fortunate,” or “successful.”

Fétiche

An object believed to possess magical or supernatural power, especially as a sacred talisman.

Fa

The fourth note of the modern solfège scale, corresponding to the fourth degree of a major scale.

Fa’afafine

A Samoan term for a person assigned male at birth who lives in a traditionally feminine gender role, often understood as a distinct gender identity.

Fa'afafine

A Samoan cultural identity generally describing a person assigned male at birth who embodies feminine gender roles and may identify outside Western male-female categories.

Faba

A botanical name for the broad-bean genus, and a Latin-derived term meaning “bean.”

Fabaceae

A large family of flowering plants that includes beans, peas, lentils, clovers, and many trees and shrubs.

Fabaceous

Of, relating to, or resembling beans, especially plants in the bean family.

Fabian

A masculine given name and surname derived from the Roman family name Fabianus, also associated with the Fabian Society and its gradualist political strategy.

Fabiform

Shaped like a bean.

Fabism

A medical condition involving hemolytic anemia triggered by eating or inhaling products from fava beans, especially in people with G6PD deficiency.

Fabius

A Roman family name, most famously borne by Quintus Fabius Maximus, the Roman general known for delaying Hannibal rather than confronting him directly.

Fable

A short story, typically with a moral lesson, often featuring animals as characters.

Fablet

A short fable or brief moral tale.

Fabric

Cloth or material made by weaving or knitting fibers; also the basic structure or framework of something.

Fabricate

To make or construct something; or to invent a false story or evidence.

Fabulate

To invent or tell a story, especially in a way that blurs fact and fiction.

Fabulist

A person who tells or writes fables; by extension, a liar or fabricator.