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forage

/ˈfoɹɪd͡ʒ/noun, verb

forage is spelled F-O-R-A-G-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 24,745th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, forage means “Fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of forage is forages.

How many letters and syllables are in forage?

Letters6: F-O-R-A-G-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.3 times per million words; the 24,745th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 forage?

Forage appears 1.3 times per million words in written English, the 24,745th 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 forage?

  • UK /ˈfɒɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/
  • US /ˈfoɹɪd͡ʒ/
  • US [ˈfo̞ɹɪd͡ʒ]

Forage 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: En-us-forage.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of forage

  • forages plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • foraging participle, present
  • foraged participle, past

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

What does forage mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses.

  2. 2

    An act or instance of foraging.

  3. 3

    obsoleteThe demand for fodder, etc., by an army from the local population.

verb

  1. 1

    To search for and gather food for animals, particularly cattle and horses.

  2. 2

    To rampage through, gathering and destroying as one goes.

  3. 3

    To rummage.

  4. 4

    Of an animal: to seek out and eat food.

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

Forage in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfourrage (fodder for animals), fourrager (to search for and gather food for animals), fouiller (to rummage)
GermanFourage, Viehfutter, Pferdefutter (fodder for animals), fouragieren (to search for and gather food for animals), herumsuchen (to rummage)
Portugueseforragem (fodder for animals), forragear (to search for and gather food for animals), coleta, forrageamento (act or instance of foraging)
Spanishforraje (fodder for animals), forrajear (to search for and gather food for animals), forrajeo (act or instance of foraging)

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 forage come from?

From Middle English forage, from Old French fourage, forage, a derivative of fuerre (“fodder, straw”), from Frankish *fōdar (“fodder, sheath”), from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą (“fodder, feed, sheath”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect, to feed”).

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

What to look up after forage