--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -4,9 +4,17 @@
  ** Other new functions added in 4.2:
 
       dir_in_loadpath
+      numfields
 
  ** Deprecated functions.
 
+    The following functions have been deprecated in Octave 4.2 and will
+    be removed from Octave 4.6 (or whatever version is the second major
+    release after 4.2):
+
+      find_dir_in_path
+      nfields
+
     The following functions were deprecated in Octave 3.8 and have been
     removed from Octave 4.2.
 
@@ -19,14 +27,6 @@
       java_get                read_readline_init_file   
       java_invoke             saving_history            
 
-
-    The following functions have been deprecated in Octave 4.2 and will
-    be removed from Octave 4.6 (or whatever version is the second major
-    release after 4.2):
-
-      find_dir_in_path
-
-
     The following keywords were deprecated in Octave 3.8 and have been
     removed from Octave 4.2
 

--- a/doc/interpreter/container.txi
+++ b/doc/interpreter/container.txi
@@ -507,7 +507,7 @@
 
 Other functions that can manipulate the fields of a structure are given below.
 
-@DOCSTRING(nfields)
+@DOCSTRING(numfields)
 
 @DOCSTRING(fieldnames)
 

--- a/libinterp/corefcn/oct-map.cc
+++ b/libinterp/corefcn/oct-map.cc
@@ -811,9 +811,9 @@
 %! sr = [s,s];
 %! sc = [s;s];
 %! sm = [s,s;s,s];
-%! assert (nfields (sr), 0);
-%! assert (nfields (sc), 0);
-%! assert (nfields (sm), 0);
+%! assert (numfields (sr), 0);
+%! assert (numfields (sc), 0);
+%! assert (numfields (sm), 0);
 %! assert (size (sr), [1, 2]);
 %! assert (size (sc), [2, 1]);
 %! assert (size (sm), [2, 2]);

--- a/libinterp/octave-value/ov-struct.cc
+++ b/libinterp/octave-value/ov-struct.cc
@@ -2066,9 +2066,9 @@
   return retval;
 }
 
-DEFUN (nfields, args, ,
+DEFUN (numfields, args, ,
        "-*- texinfo -*-\n\
-@deftypefn {Built-in Function} {} nfields (@var{s})\n\
+@deftypefn {Built-in Function} {} numfields (@var{s})\n\
 Return the number of fields of the structure @var{s}.\n\
 @seealso{fieldnames}\n\
 @end deftypefn")

--- a/scripts/deprecated/module.mk
+++ b/scripts/deprecated/module.mk
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
 
 deprecated_FCN_FILES = \
   deprecated/find_dir_in_path.m \
-  deprecated/isstr.m
+  deprecated/isstr.m \
+  deprecated/nfields.m
 
 FCN_FILES += $(deprecated_FCN_FILES)
 

new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/deprecated/nfields.m
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2014 Rik Wehbring
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+## your option) any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {} nfields (@var{s})
+## Return the number of fields of the structure @var{s}.
+##
+## @strong{Warning:} @code{nfields} is scheduled for removal in version 4.6.
+## Use @code{numfields} instead.
+## @seealso{numfields, fieldnames}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+function retval = nfields (varargin)
+
+  persistent warned = false;
+  if (! warned)
+    warned = true;
+    warning ("Octave:deprecated-function",
+             "nfields is obsolete and will be removed from a future version of Octave; please use numfields instead");
+  endif
+
+  if (nargin < 1)
+    print_usage ();
+  endif
+
+  retval = numfields (varargin{:});
+
+endfunction
+

--- a/scripts/general/fieldnames.m
+++ b/scripts/general/fieldnames.m
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 ## When the input is a Java object @var{javaobj} or Java classname
 ## @var{jclassname} the name are the public data elements of the object or
 ## class.
-## @seealso{nfields, isfield, orderfields, struct, methods}
+## @seealso{numfields, isfield, orderfields, struct, methods}
 ## @end deftypefn
 
 function names = fieldnames (obj)

--- a/scripts/general/private/__isequal__.m
+++ b/scripts/general/private/__isequal__.m
@@ -95,9 +95,9 @@
     if (isstruct (x))
       ## Test the number of fields.
       fn_x = fieldnames (x);
-      l_fn_x = length (fn_x);
+      l_fn_x = numfields (x);
       fn_v = cellfun ("fieldnames", varargin, "uniformoutput", false);
-      t = all (l_fn_x == cellfun ("length", fn_v));
+      t = all (l_fn_x == cellfun ("numfields", varargin));
 
       ## Test that all the names are equal.
       idx = 0;

--- a/scripts/image/imwrite.m
+++ b/scripts/image/imwrite.m
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@
   fmt = imformats (ext);
   ## When there is no match, fmt will be a 1x1 structure with
   ## no fields, so we can't just use `isempty (fmt)'.
-  if (isempty (fieldnames (fmt)))
+  if (numfields (fmt) > 0)
     if (isempty (ext))
       error ("imwrite: no extension found for %s to identify the image format",
              filename);

--- a/scripts/image/private/imageIO.m
+++ b/scripts/image/private/imageIO.m
@@ -84,13 +84,13 @@
     foo = []; # the function we will use
 
     ## We check if the call to imformats (ext) worked using
-    ## "isempty (fieldnames (fmt))" because when it fails, the returned
+    ## "numfields (fmt) > 0 because when it fails, the returned
     ## struct is not considered empty.
 
     ## try the second input argument
     if (! isempty (varargin) && ischar (varargin{1}))
       fmt = imformats (varargin{1});
-      if (! isempty (fieldnames (fmt)))
+      if (numfields (fmt) > 0)
         foo = fmt.(fieldname);
         varargin(1) = []; # remove format name from arguments
       endif
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@
         ext = ext(2:end);
       endif
       fmt = imformats (ext);
-      if (! isempty (fieldnames (fmt)))
+      if (numfields (fmt) > 0)
         foo = fmt.(fieldname);
       endif
     endif

--- a/scripts/io/importdata.m
+++ b/scripts/io/importdata.m
@@ -146,8 +146,7 @@
     ## i.e., output = output.onlyFieldLeft
 
     ## Update the list of fields
-    fields = fieldnames (output);
-    if (numel (fields) == 1)
+    if (numfields (output) == 1)
       output = output.(fields{1});
     endif
   endif

--- a/scripts/testfun/assert.m
+++ b/scripts/testfun/assert.m
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@
         err.reason{end+1} = ["Expected struct, but observed " class(cond)];
       elseif (ndims (cond) != ndims (expected)
               || any (size (cond) != size (expected))
-              || rows (fieldnames (cond)) != rows (fieldnames (expected)))
+              || numfields (cond) != numfields (expected))
 
         err.index{end+1} = ".";
         err.observed{end+1} = ["O(" sprintf("%dx", size(cond))(1:end-1) ")"];