afoot

/əˈfʊt/adverb, adjective

afoot is spelled A-F-O-O-T: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 33,236th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adverb, afoot means “On foot. (means of locomotion, walking)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in afoot?

Letters	5: A-F-O-O-T
Syllables	2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	about once in every 1 million words; the 33,236th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is afoot?

Afoot appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 33,236th most frequent word form in the list.

afoot0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce afoot?

/əˈfʊt/
/əˈfʉt/

Afoot has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-afoot.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What does afoot mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adverb

1
On foot. (means of locomotion, walking)
2
On foot. (support of the body, standing)
3
In motion; in action; astir; stirring; in progress.

adjective

1
Walking or running; using the feet for locomotion, as opposed to on horseback or riding in a vehicle.
2
That is on foot, in motion, in action, in progress.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Afoot in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
French	debout (support of the body, standing), en cours (in progress)
German	auf den Füssen, stehend (support of the body, standing)
Portuguese	de pé (support of the body, standing)
Spanish	de pie, de pies, en pie (support of the body, standing), en marcha (in progress)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does afoot come from?

From a- + foot.