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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

feud.

A state of long-standing mutual hostility.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/fjuːd/Received-Pronunciation/fjʉwd/British, Southern, Standard/fjud/General-American/fjʉːd/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. A state of long-standing mutual hostility.

    You couldn't call it a feud exactly, but there had always been a chill between Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods.
  2. A staged rivalry between wrestlers.

  3. A combination of kindred to avenge injuries or affronts, done or offered to any of their blood, on the offender and all his race.

    historical · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Northern Middle English fede, feide, from Old French faide, feide, fede, from Proto-West Germanic *faihiþu (“hatred, enmity”) (corresponding to foe + -th), from Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- (“hostile”). Cognate to Old English fǣhþ, fǣhþu, fǣhþo (“hostility, enmity, violence, revenge, vendetta”), German Fehde, and Dutch vete (“feud”) (directly inherited from Proto-West Germanic) alongside Danish fejde (“feud, enmity, hostility, war”) and Swedish fejd (“feud, controversy, quarrel, strife”) (borrowed from Middle Low German).

verb/fjuːd/Received-Pronunciation/fjʉwd/British, Southern, Standard/fjud/General-American/fjʉːd/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To carry on a feud.

    intransitive
    The two men began to feud after one of them got a job promotion and the other thought he was more qualified.
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Northern Middle English fede, feide, from Old French faide, feide, fede, from Proto-West Germanic *faihiþu (“hatred, enmity”) (corresponding to foe + -th), from Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- (“hostile”). Cognate to Old English fǣhþ, fǣhþu, fǣhþo (“hostility, enmity, violence, revenge, vendetta”), German Fehde, and Dutch vete (“feud”) (directly inherited from Proto-West Germanic) alongside Danish fejde (“feud, enmity, hostility, war”) and Swedish fejd (“feud, controversy, quarrel, strife”) (borrowed from Middle Low German).

noun/fjuːd/Received-Pronunciation/fjʉwd/British, Southern, Standard/fjud/General-American/fjʉːd/Australia, New-Zealand
  1. An estate granted to a vassal by a feudal lord in exchange for service.

Where this word comes from

From Medieval Latin feudum. Doublet of fee, fief, and feoff.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.