Word.ws English Dictionary

sainfoin

/ˈsænfɔɪn/

sainfoin noun: a perennial herb of the genus Onobrychis with pale pink flowers, especially Onobrychis viciifolia (syn. Onobrychis sativa).

sainfoin: a perennial herb of the genus Onobrychis with pale pink flowers, especially Onobrychis viciifolia...
Image: Eric Steinert, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

sainfoin (countable and uncountable, plural sainfoins)

  1. A perennial herb of the genus Onobrychis with pale pink flowers, especially Onobrychis viciifolia (syn. Onobrychis sativa).
    • I saw a breath of wind emerge from the furthest horizon, bowing over the heads of corn in distant fields, pouring like a flood over all that vast expanse, and finally come to rest, warm and rustling, among the clover and sainfoin at my feet […]1992, Moncrieff/Kilmartin/Enright, translating Marcel Proust, Swann's Way, Folio Society 2005, p. 143

sainfoin meaning in Tamil and Persian

sainfoin in Tamil

சேன்போயின்

sainfoin in Persian

perennial herbs
اسپرس espers

Forms of sainfoin

pluralsainfoins

Origin of sainfoin

From French sainfoin, from sain (“healthy, healthful”) + foin (“hay”).

Words formed from sainfoin

  • cockshead sainfoin
  • Onobrychis caput-galli
  • common sainfoin
  • wild sainfoin
  • single-cut sainfoin
  • Onobrychis viciifolia
  • Spanish sanfoin
  • Onobrychis iberica

Questions about sainfoin

What does sainfoin mean?
Sainfoin means a perennial herb of the genus Onobrychis with pale pink flowers, especially Onobrychis viciifolia (syn. Onobrychis sativa).
What is sainfoin in Tamil?
Sainfoin in Tamil is சேன்போயின். See Sainfoin meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is sainfoin?
Sainfoin is a noun.
How do you pronounce sainfoin?
Sainfoin is pronounced /ˈsænfɔɪn/.
What is the plural of sainfoin?
The plural of sainfoin is sainfoins.

Words near sainfoin in the dictionary

  1. Saindons
  2. Saine
  3. sained
  4. Saines
  5. sainfeldite
  6. sainfoin
  7. sainfoins
  8. SAing
  9. saing waing
  10. Saini
  11. sainik

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sainfoin (page history and authors); sainfoin (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sainfoin.wav.

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