Word.ws English Dictionary

fonio

/ˈfəʊnjəʊ/

fonio noun: digitaria exilis, a cereal cultivated in western Africa; white fonio.

fonio: digitaria exilis, a cereal cultivated in western Africa; white fonio
Image: Richard Nyberg, USAID, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

fonio (uncountable)

  1. Digitaria exilis, a cereal cultivated in western Africa; white fonio
    • There’s a certain magic to fonio, a tiny golden grain believed to be Africa’s oldest cultivated cereal. The ancient grain’s potential to solve pressing modern environmental and economic challenges inspired Pierre Thiam, the Senegalese-born chef, to become fonio’s No 1 champion.2023 July 6, Maria C. Hunt, “Could an ancient, climate-friendly crop be the future of beer?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
    Synonyms:
    hungry rice
  2. Digitaria iburua, a cereal cultivated in western Africa, black fonio

Synonyms of fonio

Origin of fonio

From French fonio, from Wolof foño.

Questions about fonio

What does fonio mean?
Fonio means digitaria exilis, a cereal cultivated in western Africa; white fonio.
What part of speech is fonio?
Fonio is a noun.
How do you pronounce fonio?
Fonio is pronounced /ˈfəʊnjəʊ/.

Words near fonio in the dictionary

  1. fong kong
  2. Fongs
  3. Fongshan
  4. Fonidhaani
  5. Fonimagoodhoo
  6. fonio
  7. fonly
  8. FonMin
  9. Fonner
  10. Fonners
  11. fonning

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fonio (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “fonio.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fonio. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.