# fowl

> English word · Noun · IPA /faʊl/ · frequency rank #28,924

## Definitions
1. A bird hunted or kept for food, grouped into landfowl (order Galliformes), also called gamefowl, and waterfowl (order Anseriformes: ducks, geese, swans, etc.), which together form the clade Galloanserae.
2. Any bird.

## Etymology
From Middle English foul, foghel, fowel, fowele, from Old English fugol (“bird”), from Proto-West Germanic *fugl, from Proto-Germanic *fuglaz, dissimilated variant of *fluglaz (compare Old English flugol ‘fleeing’, Mercian fluglas heofun ‘birds of the air’), from *fleuganą (“to fly”). Cognate with West Frisian fûgel, Low German Vagel, Dutch vogel, German Vogel, Swedish fågel, Danish and Norwegian fugl. Doublet of voël. More at fly.

## Easily confused with
- **FW** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fowl-vs-fw)
- **fox** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fowl-vs-fox)
- **FTW** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fowl-vs-ftw)
- **foy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fowl-vs-foy)
- **FTL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fowl-vs-ftl)
- **full** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fowl-vs-full)
- **fuel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fowl-vs-fuel)
- **foxy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fowl-vs-foxy)
- **Foxx** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fowl-vs-foxx)
- **frown** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fowl-vs-frown)
- **Foyle** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fowl-vs-foyle)
- **fowler** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fowl-vs-fowler)
- **FL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fl-vs-fowl)
- **fo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fo-vs-fowl)
- **for** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/for-vs-fowl)
- **few** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/few-vs-fowl)
- **fog** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fog-vs-fowl)
- **foe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/foe-vs-fowl)
- **foo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/foo-vs-fowl)
- **fil** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fil-vs-fowl)

## Common misspellings (5)
`ffowl`, `fowll`, `fowwl`, `fwol`, `ofwl`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/fowl