ignis fatuus

Questions about ignis fatuus

What does ignis fatuus mean?

ignis fatuus means "a pale light sometimes seen at night over marshy ground". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for ignis fatuus?

Close synonyms include friar's lantern, jack-o'-lantern, will-o'-the-wisp, will-o'-the-wisp. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is ignis fatuus a common word?

ignis fatuus is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.