Fonio

//ˈfəʊnjəʊ// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Digitaria exilis, a cereal cultivated in western Africa; white fonio uncountable

    "There’s a certain magic to fonio, a tiny golden grain believed to be Africa’s oldest cultivated cereal. The ancient grain’s potential to solve pressing modern environmental and economic challenges inspired Pierre Thiam, the Senegalese-born chef, to become fonio’s No 1 champion."

  2. 2
    Digitaria iburua, a cereal cultivated in western Africa, black fonio uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
achaachahungry rice

Example

More examples

"There’s a certain magic to fonio, a tiny golden grain believed to be Africa’s oldest cultivated cereal. The ancient grain’s potential to solve pressing modern environmental and economic challenges inspired Pierre Thiam, the Senegalese-born chef, to become fonio’s No 1 champion."

Etymology

From French fonio, from Wolof foño.

Related phrases

digitaria exilis

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.