fen

CEFRC2

/fɛn/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    Wet, low land covered with grass and other plants.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A unit of currency in China, one-hundredth of a yuan.

Examples

  • FEN does not carry domestic news.

  • Near-synonyms: marsh, swamp, bog, mire

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
4

Also pronounced

  • /fen/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Any swamp or mire (especially with negative connotations).

  2. A type of wetland fed by ground water and runoff, containing peat below the waterline, characteristically alkaline.

  3. a plural of fan used by enthusiasts of science fiction, fantasy, and anime, partly from whimsy and partly to distinguish themselves from fans of sport, etc.

More examples

In context

  • In dark fens of the Dismal Swamp / The hunted Negro lay; …

  • Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: / England hath need of thee: she is a fen / Of stagnant waters […]

  • Bogs are acidic peatlands, while fens are non-acidic peatlands.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Hikers avoided the soggy blank because it was filled with unstable peat and mud.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English fen, fenne, from Old English fenn (“fen; marsh; mud; dirt”), Proto-West Germanic *fani, from Proto-Germanic *fanją, from Proto-Indo-European *pen- (“bog, mire”). See also West Frisian fean, Dutch veen, German Fenn, Norwegian fen; also Middle Irish en (“water”), enach (“swamp”), Old Prussian pannean (“peat-bog”), Sanskrit पङ्क (paṅka, “marsh, mud, mire, slough”).