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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

foment.

To incite or cause troublesome acts; to encourage; to instigate.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/fəʊˈmɛnt/Received-Pronunciation/foʊˈmɛnt/US/fəˈmɛnt/US
  1. To incite or cause troublesome acts; to encourage; to instigate.

    transitive
    He was arrested for fomenting a riot; after all, it's bad enough being in a riot but starting one is much worse.
    Foreign governments have tried to foment unrest.
  2. To apply a poultice to; to bathe with a cloth or sponge.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fomenten, a borrowing from Old French fomenter, from Late Latin fōmentāre, from Latin fōmentum (“lotion”), from fovēre (“heat, cherish”).

noun/fəʊˈmɛnt/Received-Pronunciation/foʊˈmɛnt/US/fəˈmɛnt/US
  1. Fomentation.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English fomenten, a borrowing from Old French fomenter, from Late Latin fōmentāre, from Latin fōmentum (“lotion”), from fovēre (“heat, cherish”).

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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.