Fairy

How to spell fairy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fairy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fairy mean?

1. nounA small imaginary creature with magical powers, usually shown with wings.

Fairy in a sentence

• The child left a tooth under the pillow for the fairy.

• The costume included gauzy wings and a tiny fairy wand.

Where does fairy come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from the Old French faerie, meaning 'enchantment' or 'the realm of magical beings', which was built on fae, the Old French form of the Latin fata, 'the Fates', the goddesses thought to control human destiny. The Latin fata is itself the plural of fatum, literally 'that which has been spoken' and therefore 'fate'. English borrowed faerie in the 1300s to mean enchantment or the land of such beings, and only later did it narrow to mean a single small magical creature. The spelling trap lives in that first vowel: it is 'fair', the same letters as the adjective meaning just or lovely, even though the sound feels closer to 'fer'. The same fata root also gave us the word 'fate' and the Italian-flavoured 'fay', so the magical and the destined senses share one distant ancestor.

How the word is built

• fair (from Old French faerie: enchantment, land of magical beings)
• -y (noun suffix)

Words that sound like fairy

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• ferry: A boat or ship that carries passengers and vehicles across a body of water on a regular route.