food
[fuːd]noun
food is spelled F-O-O-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 251 times per million words in written English, the 387th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, food means “Any solid substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of food is foods.
How many letters and syllables are in food?
| Letters | 4: F-O-O-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 251 times per million words; the 387th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is food?
Food appears 251 times per million words in written English, the 387th 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 food?
- /fuːd/
- UK [fuːd]
- UK [fʊwd]
Food has one syllable (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: En-uk-food.ogg, En_US_Food.wav, Fʏːd.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with food?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as food.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: doof.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of food
- foods plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does food mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any solid substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life.
The innkeeper brought them food and drink.
- 2
A foodstuff, a type of food.
- 3
Anything that nourishes or sustains.
The man's inspiring speech gave us food for thought.
- 4
Any illegal substance or illegal substances, drugs.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Food in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | nourriture, alimentation, manger, bouffe , aliment |
| German | Nahrung, Essen, Lebensmittel, Speise |
| Portuguese | comida, alimento |
| Spanish | alimento, comida, víveres, jama, manduca, manducatoria |
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 food come from?
From Middle English fode, foode, from Old English fōda (“food”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōdō, from Proto-Germanic *fōdô (“food”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, graze, feed”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).