Word.ws English Dictionary

ignes fatui

ignes fatui is the plural of ignis fatuus.

Meaning of ignis fatuus

Noun

ignis fatuus (plural ignes fatui)

  1. A will o' the wisp.
    • Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly work by blazing stars, fire-drakes, or ignes fatui; which lead men often in flumina aut præcipitia, saith Bodine[…]1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC
  2. (figuratively) A delusion, a false hope.
    • […] they think this is written on purpose to be published; and that this defence is so published, that it may serve as an Ignis fatuus to mislead them […]1660, William Petty, Reflections upon Ireland, page 55

Questions about ignes fatui

What is ignes fatui the plural of?
Ignes fatui is the plural of ignis fatuus.

Words near ignes fatui in the dictionary

  1. igneous rock
  2. igneous rocks
  3. igneously
  4. igneousness
  5. Igneri
  6. ignes fatui
  7. ignescent
  8. ignescents
  9. ignesious
  10. Ignești
  11. igni-

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ignes fatui (page history and authors); ignis fatuus (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: “ignes fatui.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ignes_fatui. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.