fauna

American  

[faw-nuh] / ˈfɔ nə /

noun

• faunas,
  plural
• faunae
  plural

1. the animals of a given region or period considered as a whole.

2. a treatise on the animals of a given region or period.

3. (initial capital letter) Bona Dea.

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fauna British  

/ ˈfɔːnə /

noun

1. all the animal life of a given place or time, esp when distinguished from the plant life (flora)

2. a descriptive list of such animals

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fauna Scientific  

/ fô′nə /

• faunas
  plural

1. The animals of a particular region or time period.

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fauna Cultural  

1. Animals, especially the animals of a particular place and time.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• faunal
  adjective
• faunally
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• faunae
  plural
• faunas
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of fauna

1765–75; < New Latin, special use of Latin Fauna, a feminine counterpart to Faunus; cf. Flora

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Explanation

When you go on a nature walk in a school setting, your teacher might tell you to observe the flora and fauna in the woods. Flora is plant life; fauna refers to animals. Fauna derives from the name of a Roman goddess, but the handiest way to remember the difference between flora and fauna is that flora sounds like flowers, which are part of the plant world; fauna, however, sounds like "fawn," and fawns are part of the animal kingdom.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fauna faunae faunas

Along the way, you can learn about the flora and fauna via informational plaques.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

Furthermore, the discovery reinforces Rio Grande do Sul’s status as one of the world’s most important regions for the study of Triassic fauna.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026

It is believed to be home to more than 100 plant species and rich invertebrate fauna, and is recognised as one of the most important chalk river habitats in England.

From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026

The county, local agencies, utilities and property owners are in a constant battle with the flora and fauna just beyond fencelines and backyards.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026

Yet there is no evidence of any significant disappearance of oceanic fauna 45,000 years ago.

From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari

The winding evolutionary paths that these feathered faunae took to become so diverse, however, remains a mystery.

From Science Magazine ● Apr. 4, 2024

This would be the more important as, with the exception of Brazil, hardly anything is known of the shore faunae upon the greater part of the South American coast.

From Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence by Louis Agassiz

"These repeated incursions into freshwater at the early divergence stage likely accelerated speciation, and are key factors in explaining the extraordinary hyper-diversity of otophysans in modern freshwater faunas."

From Science Daily ● Nov. 3, 2025

"This is one of the most diverse marine faunas seen anywhere, at any time in history, and it existed just before the marine reptiles and the dinosaurs went extinct," Dr Longrich said.

From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2024

What we argue in the new paper is that several of the faunas are upper Campanian or lower Maastrichtian, and thus date to perhaps 72 Ma or so.

From Scientific American ● Sep. 28, 2015

“Definitely there was a change in population leading up to the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, so something was happening to the faunas prior to the impact,” he said.

From US News ● Feb. 24, 2011

This, however, is only a very rough-and-ready method of sub-dividing the British Islands into their component parts according to the origin of their faunas.

From The History of the European Fauna by Robert Francis Scharff

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