fife
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fife¹
- /ˈfaɪf/
Rhymes with -aɪf
Where it comes from
From German Pfeife (“whistle, smoking pipe”). Doublet of pipe.
noun fifes
- A small shrill pipe, resembling the piccolo flute, used chiefly to accompany the drum in military music
verb fifes · fifing · fifed
- To play this instrument.
fife²
- /ˈfaɪf/
Rhymes with -aɪf
number
- Used instead of five in radio communications, especially NATO and ICAO, to avoid confusion with fire or nine. “Change course to two fife zero and reduce height to fifteen hundred feet.” That “fife,” thought Alan, sounded very affected; but it had a good survival value in a noisy background.
Fife³
- /ˈfʌɪf/ Scotland
- /ˈfaɪf/ UK
Rhymes with -aɪf
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Scottish Gaelic Fìobha, said to date back to the eponym Fib, one of the seven sons of the legendary Pictish king Cruithne. Possibly related to the Uip attested in the Pictish kings lists, in turn possibly related to the Latin Vepogenus, in which the first element is the Proto-Brythonic predecessor of Welsh gwep (“face”).
proper noun
-
A traditional county of Scotland succeeded by Fife Region in 1975, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with landward boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire.
Ross: Will you to Scone?
Macduff: No, cousin, I'll to Fife.
Similar: Fifeshire
- A council area of Scotland, one of 32 created in 1996.
- An unincorporated community in McCulloch County, Texas, named after Fife in Scotland.
- An unincorporated community in Goochland County, Virginia, named after the owner of the village site.
- A city in Pierce County, Washington, possibly named after William J. Fife.
- A surname.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: piercing, fifi, five, cupar, cookson, tin whistle, fiddle, piccolo, piffero, slide whistle, pennywhistle, fiddler, hornpipe, ophicleide, pitchpipe, bagpipes
Translations
Talk about this word "fife." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/fife. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. fife. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/fife "fife." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/fife.Cite this
@misc{fife_2026,
title = {fife},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/fife},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
