fen

1 [fen]
noun
1.
low land covered wholly or partially with water; boggy land; a marsh.
2.
a marshy region W and S of The Wash, in E England.
Origin:
before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Old Norse fen quagmire, Gothic fani mud, Dutch ven, German Fenn fen, bog

Dictionary.com Unabridged

fen

2 [fen]
noun, plural fen.
an aluminum coin and monetary unit of the People's Republic of China, the hundredth part of a yuan or the tenth part of a jiao.
Origin:
1905–10; < Chinese fēn

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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00:10
Fen is always a great word to know.
So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
fen1 (fɛn) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n
low-lying flat land that is marshy or artificially drained
 
[Old English fenn; related to Old High German fenna, Old Norse fen, Gothic fani clay, Sanskrit panka mud]

fen2 (fɛn) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n , pl fen
a monetary unit of the People's Republic of China, worth one hundredth of a yuan
 
[from Mandarin Chinese]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

fen
O.E. fen, fenn "marsh, dirt, mud," from P.Gmc. *fanja- (cf. O.Fris. fenne, Du. veen, Ger. Fenn "marsh," Goth. fani "mud"); probably cognate with Gaul. anam "water," Skt. pankah "bog, marsh, mud," O.Prus. pannean "swampland." It., Sp. fango, O.Fr. fanc, Fr. fange "mud" are loan-words from Gmc. The native
L. word was limus or lutum.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

fen

type of bog (q.v.), especially a low-lying area, wholly or partly covered with water and dominated by grasslike plants, grasses, sedges, and reeds. In strict usage, a fen denotes an area in which the soil is organic (peaty) and alkaline rather than acid.

Learn more about fen with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Example sentences
Phen-fen helped that totally, but that's off the market.
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