Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

fennel

/ˈfɛnəl/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 2.96 in modern English

Syllables
fen-nel
IPA
/ˈfɛnəl/
9
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A plant, Foeniculum vulgare, of the parsley family, which has a sweet, anise-like flavor.

Uncountable

noun

The bulb, leaves, or stalks of the plant, eaten as a vegetable.

Uncountable

noun

The seeds of the fennel plant used as a spice in cooking.

Uncountable

name

A surname.

Etymology

From the Middle English fenel, from the late Old English finuðl, finule (weak feminine forms); fenol, finul (masculine forms), from Proto-West Germanic *fenukl, from the Vulgar Latin *fēnuclum, fēnoclum, from Late Latin fēnuculum, from the Classical Latin faeniculum, a diminutive form of faenum (“hay”); compare the Italian finocchio, the Occitan fenolh, the French fenouil, and the Spanish hinojo. Doublet of finocchio and finook.

Origin

Word Breakdown

  • Root: fenel, finugl, *fenukl, fēnuculum, faeniculum

Usage

Inflected Forms

fennels (plural)

Derived Forms

dogfennel fennelflower

Phrases

bronze fennel common fennel dog fennel (Anthemis cotula, Eupatorium capillifolium, etc fennel flower fennel-flower fennel pondweed Florence fennel giant fennel

Synonyms

sweet anise common fennel florence fennel finocchio

Rhymes With

departmental kennel pennell fennell henle pennel kennell when'll phenyl antennal crenel treenail

Questions

How do you pronounce fennel?
The recorded pronunciation is /ˈfɛnəl/.
What does fennel mean?
A plant, Foeniculum vulgare, of the parsley family, which has a sweet, anise-like flavor.
Where does fennel come from?
It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce fennel

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “fennel”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈfɛnəl/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “fennel”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “fennel” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.