fen
1 Americannoun
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low land covered wholly or partially with water; boggy land; a marsh.
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the Fens, a marshy region W and S of The Wash, in E England.
noun
noun
noun
Etymology
Origin of fen1
before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Old Norse fen quagmire, Gothic fani mud, Dutch ven, German Fenn fen, bog
Origin of fen2
First recorded in 1905–10, fen is from the Chinese word fēn
Explanation
A fen is a marshy area — a damp, grassy area of ground. If your entire back yard is a fen, you'll want to wear tall rubber boots when you walk your dog. A fen is similar to a marsh, a mire, a swamp, or a bog. In all of these wetland ecosystems, the water level tends to rise and fall, leaving them constantly soggy to some degree. Fens are distinguished by the kinds of plants that grow there, including tall grasses and moss, and by the acidity of the water. The word fen comes from the Old English fenn, which means "mud, mire, dirt, or marsh."
Vocabulary lists containing fen
Beowulf
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Beowulf: A New Telling
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Essential Three-Letter Words, Part 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The birds at Lakenheath Fen enjoy the site's reedbeds which provide access to water away from humans.
From BBC • Apr. 9, 2026
In a park surrounding the mausoleum, 74-year-old Nanjing resident surnamed Fen told AFP on Wednesday that he had come to the area after hearing of Cheng's visit.
From Barron's • Apr. 8, 2026
Fen Hampson, an international politics professor at Ottawa’s Carleton University, said Carney has decided “it’s time to take the gloves off and play hardball.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 25, 2026
Co-lead author Fen Wu of NYU Grossman School of Medicine said the findings offer the clearest proof yet of the connection between lowering arsenic exposure and reduced mortality risk.
From Science Daily • Nov. 27, 2025
“In the Fen, they don’t have that,” he said.
From "Gathering Blue" by Lois Lowry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
