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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

foot.

A biological structure found in many animals that is used for locomotion and that is frequently a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/fʊt/[fʊt][fʊt̚]General-American[fʊt̚]England, Wales
  1. A biological structure found in many animals that is used for locomotion and that is frequently a separate organ at the terminal part of the leg.

    A spider has eight feet.
  2. Specifically, a human foot, which is found below the ankle and is used for standing and walking.

    Southern Italy is shaped like a foot.
    The wave knocked me off my feet.
  3. Travel by walking.

    attributive · often
    We went there by foot because we could not afford a taxi.
    There is a lot of foot traffic on this street.
  4. The base or bottom of anything.

    I'll meet you at the foot of the stairs.
  5. The part of a flat surface on which the feet customarily rest.

    We came and stood at the foot of the bed.
  6. The end of a rectangular table opposite the head.

    The host should sit at the foot of the table.
  7. A short foot-like projection on the bottom of an object to support it.

    The feet of the stove hold it a safe distance above the floor.
  8. A unit of measure equal to twelve inches or one third of a yard, equal to exactly 30.48 centimetres.

    The flag pole, which is 20 feet high, was hoisted by a six-foot tall man.
    My sis's just over six foot two.
  9. A unit of measure equal to twelve inches or one third of a yard, equal to exactly 30.48 centimetres. Ellipsis of square foot, a unit of area.

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis · informal
  10. A unit of measure equal to twelve inches or one third of a yard, equal to exactly 30.48 centimetres. Ellipsis of cubic foot, a unit of volume.

    abbreviation · alt-of · ellipsis · informal
  11. A unit of measure for organ pipes equal to the wavelength of two octaves above middle C, approximately 328 mm.

  12. Foot soldiers; infantry.

    collective
    King John went to battle with ten thousand foot and one thousand horse.
  13. The end of a cigar which is lit, and usually cut before lighting.

  14. The part of a sewing machine which presses downward on the fabric, and may also serve to move it forward.

  15. The bottommost part of a typed or printed page.

  16. The base of a piece of type, forming the sides of the groove.

  17. The basic measure of rhythm in a poem.

  18. The parsing of syllables into prosodic constituents, which are used to determine the placement of stress in languages along with the notions of constituent heads.

  19. The bottom edge of a sail.

    To make the mainsail fuller in shape, the outhaul is eased to reduce the tension on the foot of the sail.
  20. The end of a billiard or pool table behind the foot point where the balls are racked.

  21. In a bryophyte, that portion of a sporophyte which remains embedded within and attached to the parent gametophyte plant.

  22. The muscular part of a bivalve mollusc or a gastropod by which it moves or holds its position on a surface.

  23. The globular lower domain of a protein.

  24. The point of intersection of one line with another that is perpendicular to it.

  25. Fundamental principle; basis; plan.

  26. Recognized condition; rank; footing.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English fot, fote, foot, from Old English fōt, from Proto-West Germanic *fōt, from Proto-Germanic *fōts, from Proto-Indo-European *pṓds. Doublet of pes, pie (“Spanish unit of length”), and pous. Cognates *Scots fit (“foot”) *Yola voote (“foot”) *North Frisian fut, fötj (“foot”) *Saterland Frisian Fout (“foot”) *West Frisian foet (“foot”) *Cimbrian buus, vuaz, vuus (“foot”) *Dutch voet (“foot”) *Dutch Low Saxon voot (“foot”) *German Fuß, Fuss (“foot”) *German Low German Faut, Foot (“foot”) *Gottscheerish vúəs (“foot”) *Luxembourgish Fouss (“foot”) *Mòcheno vuas (“foot”) *Vilamovian füs (“foot”) *Yiddish פֿוס (fus, “foot”) *Danish fod (“foot”) *Faroese and Icelandic fótur (“foot”) *Jamtish fót (“foot”) *Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fot (“foot”) *Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐍃 (fōtus, “foot”).

verb/fʊt/[fʊt][fʊt̚]General-American[fʊt̚]England, Wales
  1. To use the foot to kick (usually a ball).

    transitive
  2. To pay (a bill).

    transitive
  3. To tread to measure of music; to dance; to trip; to skip.

  4. To walk.

  5. To set foot on; to walk on.

    archaic
  6. To set on foot; to establish; to land.

    obsolete
  7. To renew the foot of (a stocking, etc.).

  8. To sum up, as the numbers in a column; sometimes with up.

    to foot (or foot up) an account
  9. To spread out and stack up (turf sods) to allow them to dry.

    Ireland · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fot, fote, foot, from Old English fōt, from Proto-West Germanic *fōt, from Proto-Germanic *fōts, from Proto-Indo-European *pṓds. Doublet of pes, pie (“Spanish unit of length”), and pous. Cognates *Scots fit (“foot”) *Yola voote (“foot”) *North Frisian fut, fötj (“foot”) *Saterland Frisian Fout (“foot”) *West Frisian foet (“foot”) *Cimbrian buus, vuaz, vuus (“foot”) *Dutch voet (“foot”) *Dutch Low Saxon voot (“foot”) *German Fuß, Fuss (“foot”) *German Low German Faut, Foot (“foot”) *Gottscheerish vúəs (“foot”) *Luxembourgish Fouss (“foot”) *Mòcheno vuas (“foot”) *Vilamovian füs (“foot”) *Yiddish פֿוס (fus, “foot”) *Danish fod (“foot”) *Faroese and Icelandic fótur (“foot”) *Jamtish fót (“foot”) *Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fot (“foot”) *Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐍃 (fōtus, “foot”).

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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.