Meaning & use
fen
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Meanings
nouncountable
A flat, low area of wet ground that receives mineral-rich water from the soil or from nearby streams.
Grammar: Countable: you can say a fen or several fens; the plural fens often names a whole region of such wetlands.
Patterns
- a fen
- the fens
- drain a fen
The old map shows a fen stretching east of the village, too wet to build on.
Farmers dug long straight ditches to drain the fen and grow crops on the land.
Reeds and marsh grasses grow thickly across the fen in summer.
nounpluralBritishregional
A marshland region of eastern England, especially around the Wash, often called the Fens.
Grammar: Usually written with a capital letter and used with the: the Fens refers to the whole area, not to one field.
Patterns
- the Fens
Her family has farmed in the Fens for generations.
Much of the Fens lies below sea level and depends on pumps and embankments.
Word forms
| plural | fens |
|---|
Common combinations
- drain a fen
- Engineers drained the fen in the seventeenth century to create farmland.
- a peat fen
- Walking across the peat fen, they sank up to their ankles in dark mud.
- fenland
- The fenland around the town is famous for its wide, flat skies.
- the fen edge
- Villages grew up along the fen edge, where the higher ground begins.
- a reed fen
- A reed fen provides nesting places for many rare birds.
Synonyms and how they differ
- marsh
- Marsh is the general word for any soft, wet, grassy ground; a fen is a specific type of marsh fed by mineral-rich water.
- bog
- A bog is waterlogged and acidic, with deep peat, whereas a fen is less acidic and richer in nutrients.
- swamp
- A swamp is wet ground often covered with trees or bushes, while a fen is usually open and grassy.
- wetland
- Wetland is the broad scientific term covering fens, bogs, marshes and swamps together.
Opposites
Word family
- fenland noun
- A region of fen; also used as a modifier, as in fenland scenery.
- fenny adjective
- Wet and marshy, like a fen; a literary or old-fashioned word.
Commonly confused: fen or bog? fen or marsh?
fen vs bog
Both describe wet ground, but a bog is acidic and peaty, while a fen is fed by mineral-rich water. Using fen for an acidic peatland will sound wrong to a geographer.
fen vs marsh
Marsh is the everyday, general term; fen is narrower and mainly appears in geography and place names.
Practice
Which sentence uses "fen" correctly?
Choose one answer.
A fen is a wet, low area of ground, so draining it with ditches to farm the land fits. Option 0 fails because a fen is not dry or sandy; option 2 describes a desert; option 3 confuses fen with a water tank or garden feature.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fen”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.