Word.ws English Dictionary

foam

UK/ˈfəʊ̯m//ˈfɔʊ̯m/

foam noun: a substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially.

foam: a substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially
Image: Robert Lawton, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

foam (countable and uncountable, plural foams)

  1. A substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially
    • Similarly, the biotech giant Cargill has begun manufacturing a polymer from vegetable oils that is used in polyurethane foams, which is found in beddings, furniture and car-seat headrests.2008 April 9, Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, “Harnessing Biology, and Avoiding Oil, for Chemical Goods”, in The New York Times
    • Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.2013 May-June, Charles T. Ambrose, “Alzheimer’s Disease”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 200
    Synonyms:
    froth
  2. A collection of small bubbles created when the surface of a body of water is moved by tides, wind, etc.
    • ’Tis thou that rigg’st the bark and plough’st the foam,c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • The breezes blew, the white foam flew, / The furrow follow’d free: / We were the first that ever burst / Into that silent Sea.1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner in Lyrical Ballads, London: J. & A. Arch, p. 12
  3. A collection of small bubbles formed from bodily fluids such as saliva or sweat.
    • “Again. Tell it again!” cried Fagin, tightening his grasp on Sikes, and brandishing his other hand aloft as the foam flew from his lips.1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 190
    • The horses were flecked with foam and their breathing was noisy.1954, C. S. Lewis, chapter 9, in The Horse and His Boy, London: Collins, published 1974, page 118
    Synonyms:
    froth
  4. A collection of small bubbles on the surface of a liquid that is heated, fermented or carbonated.
    • a quart jug with a crown of foam upon it1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 21, in Adam Bede […], volume II, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book second, page 122
    • The last of the milk vanished in a swirl of foam and gurgling.1938, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, chapter 15, in The Yearling, New York: Scribner, page 174
  5. A collection of small bubbles created by mixing soap with water.
    • […] she concentrated on the foam in the sink, tempering the water.1964, Saul Bellow, Herzog, New York: Viking, page 255
    • Later we shared a bath with foam up to our ears, like they always discreetly have in films.1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 7, in The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 163
    Synonyms:
    froth, lather, suds
  6. A collection of small bubbles formed by mixing an extinguishing agent with water, used to cover and extinguish fires.
    Synonyms:
    froth
  7. A food prepared in the form of a mass of airy bubbles.
    • His specialty is a mango foam.
    Synonyms:
    froth
  8. A material formed by trapping pockets of gas in a liquid or solid.
    • A foam mat can soften a hard seat.
  9. (figuratively, poetic) The sea.
    • He is in Europe, across the foam.
    • How slowly does sad Time his feathers moue? / Hast thee O fayrest Planet to thy home / Within the Westerne fome:1595, Edmund Spenser, Epithalamion
  10. Fury, rage, ire.
  11. (in plural, African-American Vernacular) Sneakers.

Verb

foam (third-person singular simple present foams, present participle foaming, simple past and past participle foamed)

  1. (intransitive) To form or emit foam.
    • […] And that is it
      Hath made me rig my navy; at whose burthen
      The anger'd ocean foams; with which I meant
      To scourge the ingratitude that despiteful Rome
      Cast on my noble father.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
    • When the fierce North-wind with his airy forces
      Rears up the Baltic to a foaming fury;1706, Isaac Watts, The Day of Judgement, lines 1–2
    Synonyms:
    suds
  2. (intransitive) To spew saliva as foam; to foam at the mouth.
    • […] to London will we march amain,
      And once again bestride our foaming steeds,
      And once again cry ‘Charge upon our foes!’
      But never once again turn back and fly.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
    • Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 9:17-18
  3. To coat or cover with foam.
    • It used to be common practice to foam the runway prior to an emergency landing, in case a fuel-fed fire occurred.

foam meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

foam in Hindi

substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains
झाग jhāg, कोप kop, फेन phen

foam in Tamil

substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains
நுரை nurai

foam in Marathi

form or emit foam
फेसाळणे phesāḷṇe

foam in Urdu

substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains
جھاگ jhāg, کَف kaf
More languagesFewer languages
foam in Bengali
ফেনা phena
foam in Telugu
నురగ nuraga
foam in Malayalam
പത pata, പതയുക patayuka
foam in Kannada
ನೊರೆ nore
foam in Punjabi
ਝੱਗ jhagga, جَھگّ jhagg
foam in Gujarati
ફેણ pheṇ, ફીણ phīṇ
foam in Odia
ଫେଣ pheṇa
foam in Sanskrit
फेन phena
foam in Assamese
ফেন phen, ফেনা phena
foam in Nepali
फोम, फोम गर्न
foam in Pashto
کف kaf, جخ jax, ځګ źag
foam in Tagalog
bula
foam in Arabic
رَغْوَة raḡwa, زَبَد zabad, زَبَد البَحْر zabad al-baḥr
foam in Malay
busa
foam in Indonesian
busa
foam in Thai
ฟอง fɔɔng, โฟม foom
foam in Vietnamese
bọt
foam in Myanmar
အမြှုပ် a.hmrup

Examples of foam in a sentence

  • And the heaven became livid with the violence of the tempest […] and the river was tormented into foam […]1838, Edgar Allan Poe, “Siope”, in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, volume 2, Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, published 1840, page 22:
  • Many [of the fish-traps] were full of fish that raised foam as they splashed about.1969, Elechi Amadi, chapter 5, in The Great Ponds,, London: Heinemann, published 1970, page 45:
  • It was a very good palm-wine and powerful, for in spite of the palm fruit hung across the mouth of the pot to restrain the lively liquor, white foam rose and spilled over.1958 June 17, Chinua Achebe, chapter 8, in Things Fall Apart, New York, N.Y.: Astor-Honor, published 1959, →OCLC, part 1, page 74:
  • A slender thread of soft-drink foam traced her upper lip;1988, Anne Tyler, Breathing Lessons, New York: Viking, Part 2, p. 167:

All 40 example sentences with foam

Synonyms of foam

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of foam

Forms of foam

Noun
pluralfoams
Verb
third-person singular presentfoams
present participlefoaming
past participlefoamed
pastfoamed

Plural of foam: foams

Origin of foam

From Middle English fom, foom, from Old English fām, from Proto-West Germanic *faim, from Proto-Germanic *faimaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)poHy-m-os, from *(s)poH(y)- (“foam”). Cognate with German Feim (“foam”), Latin spūma (“foam”), Latin pūmex (“pumice”), Sanskrit फेन (phéna, “foam”), possibly Northern Kurdish fê (“epilepsy”).

Words formed from foam

Phrases with foam

Words that rhyme with foam

20 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about foam

What does foam mean?
Foam means a substance composed of a large collection of bubbles or their solidified remains, especially.
What is foam in Hindi?
Foam in Hindi is झाग (jhāg), कोप (kop), फेन (phen). See Foam meaning in Hindi.
How do you use foam in a sentence?
And the heaven became livid with the violence of the tempest […] and the river was tormented into foam […]
What part of speech is foam?
Foam can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce foam?
Foam is pronounced /ˈfəʊ̯m/ (UK).
What is the plural of foam?
The plural of foam is foams.

Words near foam in the dictionary

  1. foalhood
  2. foaling
  3. foalings
  4. foalish
  5. foals
  6. foam
  7. foam at the mouth
  8. foam bath
  9. foam baths
  10. foam board
  11. foam cell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foam (page history and authors); foam (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-foam.ogg.

Cite this entry: “foam.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/foam. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.