overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ford.

A location where a stream is shallow and the bottom has good footing, making it possible to cross from one side to the other with no bridge, by walking, riding, or driving through the water; a crossing.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/fɔːd/Received-Pronunciation/fɔɹd/General-American/fo(ː)ɹd//foəd/

  1. A location where a stream is shallow and the bottom has good footing, making it possible to cross from one side to the other with no bridge, by walking, riding, or driving through the water; a crossing.

  2. A stream; a current.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Indo-European *pértus Proto-Germanic *furduz Proto-West Germanic *furdu Old English ford English ford From Middle English fōrd, from Old English ford, from Proto-West Germanic *furdu, from Proto-Germanic *furduz, from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (“crossing”). Doublet of firth, fjord, and fjard, all via Old Norse; and port, distantly via Latin. Cognate with Low German Föörd, Dutch voord, German Furt, Norwegian and Danish fjord. See also forth and Persian پل (pol, “bridge”).

verb/fɔːd/Received-Pronunciation/fɔɹd/General-American/fo(ː)ɹd//foəd/

  1. To cross a stream by walking through it.

  2. To traverse any precarious environment.

    broadly
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Indo-European *pértus Proto-Germanic *furduz Proto-West Germanic *furdu Old English ford English ford From Middle English fōrd, from Old English ford, from Proto-West Germanic *furdu, from Proto-Germanic *furduz, from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (“crossing”). Doublet of firth, fjord, and fjard, all via Old Norse; and port, distantly via Latin. Cognate with Low German Föörd, Dutch voord, German Furt, Norwegian and Danish fjord. See also forth and Persian پل (pol, “bridge”).

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

ford has 4 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

ford studioford workshello, ford

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.