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How Do You Pronounce foliage?
Whether you’re a casual leaf peeper or a card-carrying botanist, a staunch New Englander or Caribbean beach bum, there’s plenty to love about foliage—though the pronunciation of foliage has long been a point of contention among English speakers. Most commonly accepted is the trisyllabic \FOH-lee-ij\. However, there’s no denying that the pronunciations \FOH-lij\ and even \FOY-lij\ have also staked their claim. The first of these disputed pronunciations is consistent with the pronunciation of the -iage ending in marriage and carriage. The second is often more fiercely denounced, in part because of its association with the nonstandard spelling foilage. But there’s redemption for this estranged pronunciation: foliage traces back to Middle French foille ("leaf"), which is also the source of the English word foil (as in "aluminum foil"). When adopted by Middle English speakers, foil originally meant "leaf." Love it or leaf it, there’s just no taking the "foil" out of foliage.
Examples of foliage in a Sentence
Stephanie Giang-Paunon, FOXNews.com, 6 Dec. 2025
Main Street has a bookshop with a large children’s section, a toy store, and a general store to poke around in, while Smugglers’ Notch offers seriously cool climbable rock formations and unbeatable fall foliage.
—Kris Ann Valdez, Parents, 6 Dec. 2025
The boutique property, named for the colorful corals that sit just offshore, features 20 oceanfront casitas, each perfectly secluded amid lush jungle foliage that opens onto golden sands.
—Carley Rojas Avila, Travel + Leisure, 4 Dec. 2025
The table was decorated with seasonal flowers and foliage sourced from the grounds of Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.
—Stephanie Petit, PEOPLE, 3 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for foliage
Cite this Entry
“Foliage.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foliage. Accessed 10 Dec. 2025.
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