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LATIN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

fons.

THE SHORT MEANING

A spring, fountain, or source.

Nature

4 characters1 syllables approx.Latina language

Meaning & usage

noun[ˈfõːs]Classical-Latin[ˈfɔns]
  1. water issuing from the ground, a spring

    declension-3
  2. the water or waters of a river, sea etc.

    declension-3 · plural-normally · poetic
  3. a well, fountain or font (a large container where water pools)

    declension-3 · metonymically
  4. a well, fountain or font (a large container where water pools) the baptismal font (a pool or basin of water used for baptism)

    declension-3 · metonymically
  5. the origin or source of a river (also figuratively)

    broadly · declension-3
  6. the origin or source of a river (also figuratively) the foundation, basic principle, cause

    broadly · declension-3
Where this word comes from

From Proto-Italic *fontis, from earlier *θontis, from a Proto-Indo-European root cognate with Sanskrit धन्वति (dhanvati, “flows, runs”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *dʰónh₂-ti-s, from *dʰenh₂- (“to flow”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

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Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.