Fungi
//ˈfʌnd͡ʒaɪ// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Spongy, abnormal growth, as granulation tissue formed in a wound.
- 2 Alternative spelling of fungee (“a cornmeal dish from the Caribbean, usually made with okra and served with salt fish, shellfish, or chicken”). alt-of, alternative, uncountable
- 3 plural of fungus form-of, plural
- 4 A style of folk and popular music from the Virgin Islands, traditionally performed by bands consisting of banjo, guitar, ukulele, and washboard with various percussion instruments on rhythm. broadly, uncountable
Example
More examples"Infectious diseases are caused by prions, viruses, rickettsia, chlamydia, bacteria, pathogenic fungi and protozoa."
Etymology
Etymology 1
Borrowed from Latin fungī, from fungus + -ī (suffix forming the nominative or vocative plurals of most second-declension nouns ending in -us).
Etymology 2
See fungee. Sense 2 (“style of folk and popular music”) is apparently from the fact that the music is a blend of different musical instruments and styles, just as the dish (sense 1) is a blend of different flavours.
Related phrases
More for "fungi"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.