Skip to main content
PlainSpell

feed

/fiːd/verb, noun

feed is spelled F-E-E-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 47 times per million words in written English, the 2,153rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, feed means “To give (someone or something) food to eat” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in feed?

Letters4: F-E-E-D
Syllables1
In writing47 times per million words; the 2,153rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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

How common is feed?

Feed appears 47 times per million words in written English, the 2,153rd most frequent word form in the list.

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

How do you pronounce feed?

  • /fiːd/
  • [fɪjd]

Feed has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-feed.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of feed

  • feeds present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • feeding participle, present
  • fed participle, past

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

What does feed mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To give (someone or something) food to eat.

    Feed the dog every evening.

  2. 2

    To eat (usually of animals).

    Spiders feed on gnats and flies.

  3. 3

    To give (someone or something) to (someone or something else) as food.

    Don't feed him too much; he's still a baby.

  4. 4

    To give to a machine to be processed.

    Feed the paper gently into the document shredder.

  5. 5

    To supply (a machine) with something to be processed.

    We got interesting results after feeding the computer with the new data.

  6. 6

    To satisfy, gratify, or minister to (a sense, taste, desire, etc.).

  7. 7

    To supply with something.

    Springs feed ponds with water.

  8. 8

    To graze; to cause to be cropped by feeding, as herbage by cattle.

    If grain is too forward in autumn, feed it with sheep.

  9. 9

    simple past and past participle of fee (a form of fee)

noun

  1. 1

    Food given to (especially herbivorous) non-human animals.

    They sell feed, riding helmets, and everything else for horses.

  2. 2

    Something supplied continuously.

    a satellite feed

  3. 3

    The part of a machine that supplies the material to be operated upon.

    the paper feed of a printer

  4. 4

    The part of a fountain pen that supplies ink to the nib.

  5. 5

    The forward motion of the material fed into a machine.

  6. 6

    AustraliaUKcolloquialA meal.

  7. 7

    A gathering to eat, especially in large quantities.

    They held a crab feed on the beach.

  8. 8

    antichronological sequence of posts or articles from a single source, especially as consumable on a platform other as originally published.

    I've subscribed to the feeds of my favourite blogs, so I can find out when new posts are added without having to visit those sites.

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

Feed in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchnourrir, alimenter, donner à manger (to give food to eat), se nourrir, s'alimenter (to eat – see also eat), alimentation (food given to (especially herbivorous) animals)
Germanernähren, füttern (to give food to eat), fressen (to eat – see also eat), Futter (food given to (especially herbivorous) animals), einspeisen (to give to a machine for processing), Einspeisung (something supplied continuously; as, a…)
Portuguesealimentar (to give food to eat), comer (to eat – see also eat), ração, trato (food given to (especially herbivorous) animals), alimento (something supplied continuously; as, a…), feed (encapsulated online content)
Spanishalimentar, dar de comer, apaniguar, cebar, refeccionar, piensar (to give food to eat)

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 feed come from?

From Middle English feden, from Old English fēdan (“to feed”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōdijan, from Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną (“to feed”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Cognate with West Frisian fiede (“to nourish, feed”), Dutch voeden (“to feed”), Danish føde (“to bring forth, feed”), Swedish föda (“to bring forth, feed”), Icelandic fæða (“to feed”), and more distantly with Latin pāscō (“feed, nourish”, verb) through Indo-European. More at food, fodder.

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

What to look up after feed