victual

vic·tual/ˈvɪtəl/obsolete

victual is a noun meaning “Food fit for human (or occasionally animal) consumption” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled V-I-C-T-U-A-L and has 2 syllables (vic·tual), and it appears about once in every 35 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of victual is victuals.

What does victual mean?

noun

1
archaicFood fit for human (or occasionally animal) consumption.
2
archaicFood supplies; provisions.
3
obsoleteEdible plants.
4
ScotlandobsoleteGrain of any kind.

verb

1
archaicTo provide (military troops, a place, a ship, etc., or oneself) with a stock of victuals or food; to provision.
2
archaicTo lay in or procure food supplies.
3
archaicTo eat.

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

How do you pronounce victual?

UK /ˈvɪtəl/
UK [ˈvɪtɫ̩]
US /ˈvɪtəl/

Victual has 2 syllables, split vic·tual in writing.

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

Forms of victual

victuall
vittle
victuals present, singular, he/she/it
victualing US, participle, present
victualling UK, participle, present
victualed US, participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
victualled UK, participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
victuallest present, singular
victualleth present, singular, he/she/it

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

How common is victual?

Victual appears about once in every 35 million words in written English, the 182,517th most frequent word form in the list.

victual0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

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).

Victual in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
German	Lebensmittel, Nahrungsmittel, Viktualien (food fit for human consumption), Proviant, Vorräte, Vorrat (food supplies; provisions)
French	victuaille, victuailles, vivres (food supplies; provisions)
Portuguese	vitualhas, viadalhas, mantimentos (food supplies; provisions), vitualhar (to provide (military troops, a place, a ship…)
Spanish	vitualla, vituallas, víveres (food supplies; provisions), vituallar (to provide (military troops, a place, a ship…)

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.