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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

fodder.

Food for animals; that which is fed to cattle, horses, and sheep, such as hay, cornstalks, vegetables, etc.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfɒdə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɔdə/Australia, British, Southern, Standard/ˈfɒdə/New-Zealand[ˈfɔ̟də] ~ [ˈfɞ̠də]New-Zealand
  1. Food for animals; that which is fed to cattle, horses, and sheep, such as hay, cornstalks, vegetables, etc.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A load: various English units of weight or volume based upon standardized cartloads of certain commodities, generally around 1000 kg.

    countable · historical · uncountable
  3. Tracing paper.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  4. Stuff; material; something that serves as inspiration or encouragement, especially for satire or humour.

    countable · figuratively · uncountable
  5. The text to be operated on (anagrammed, etc.) within a clue.

    countable · uncountable
  6. People considered to have negligible value and easily available or expendable.

    countable · uncountable
    Innocent people who are arrested become fodder for the justice system.
    cannon fodder
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fodder, foder, from Old English fōdor (“feed; fodder”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōdr, from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą, from *fōdô (“food”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Compare Saterland Frisian Fodder, West Frisian foer, Dutch voer (“pasture; fodder”), German Futter (“fodder; feed”), Danish foder, Swedish foder. More at food.

verb/ˈfɒdə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɔdə/Australia, British, Southern, Standard/ˈfɒdə/New-Zealand[ˈfɔ̟də] ~ [ˈfɞ̠də]New-Zealand
  1. To feed animals (with fodder).

    dialectal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fodder, foder, from Old English fōdor (“feed; fodder”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōdr, from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą, from *fōdô (“food”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Compare Saterland Frisian Fodder, West Frisian foer, Dutch voer (“pasture; fodder”), German Futter (“fodder; feed”), Danish foder, Swedish foder. More at food.

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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.