fauna
fauna Lexical Profile
fauna Game Scores & Validity
• noun
The animals of a particular region, habitat, or geological period, considered collectively.
"The isolated island is home to a diverse array of endemic flora and fauna found nowhere else on Earth."
A systematic treatise, catalog, or reference book describing and listing the animals of a specific region or geological period.
"The university library holds a rare nineteenth-century fauna detailing the marine life of the North Atlantic."
Word Nuance & Usage
Often paired with "flora" in the phrase "flora and fauna," where "flora" refers to plant life and "fauna" refers to animal life.
• Rhymes for fauna
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the mid-18th century by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in his 1746 work "Fauna Suecica," named after Fauna, a Roman goddess of fertility and the countryside and sister of Faunus.