Foliage

How to spell foliage

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce foliage

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does foliage mean?

1. nounThe leaves of a plant or tree, considered collectively.

Foliage in a sentence

• The dense foliage blocked most of the afternoon light from the garden.

• Autumn foliage along the valley turned a brilliant red and gold.

Where does foliage come from?

Language of origin: French

Foliage entered English in the 1400s from the Old French word feuillage, meaning a mass of leaves, which was built on feuille, the French word for 'leaf'. Both ultimately trace back to the Latin folium, which simply meant 'leaf' and is the same root that gives us 'folio' (a leaf or sheet of paper) and 'portfolio'. The English spelling was later remodelled to look more like its Latin ancestor folium, which is precisely why the tricky 'i' sits in the middle: foli-age, not 'fol-age'. Because everyday speech often slurs that unstressed middle syllable, many adults write 'foilage' or 'folage' and lose the very letter the Latin root explains. Keeping folium in mind anchors the FOLI spelling.

How the word is built

• foli- (from Latin folium: leaf)
• -age (collective noun suffix)