Word.ws English Dictionary

food

/fuːd/[fuːd]

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

food noun: any solid substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life.

food: any solid substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to...
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Noun

food (usually uncountable, plural foods)

  1. (usually) 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.
    • “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like
      Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC
  2. (countable, usually) A foodstuff, a type of food.
    • Variation and changes in the trans fatty acid content of different foods, especially in processed foods, further complicate such estimates.2006, C Williams, J Buttriss, Improving the Fat Content of Foods, →ISBN, page 492
  3. (figuratively, usually) Anything that nourishes or sustains.
    • The man's inspiring speech gave us food for thought.
    • Mozart and Bach are food for my soul.
  4. (Multicultural-London-English, usually) Any illegal substance or illegal substances, drugs.
    • What kind of things that you have. When I find out don't expect me to stop. I'll come for the P's that you stack. And come for the food that you blot.2009 March 17, “Next Hype” (track 3), in All-Star Pars, performed by Tempa T
    • I'm so London, I'm so south / Food in the ends like there ain't no drought / Flipz don't talk like he's got no mouth2015, Stormzy, “Shut Up” (track 15), in Gang Signs & Prayer, performed by Stormzy

food meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

food in Hindi

any substance consumed by living organisms to sustain life
खाना khānā, भोजन bhojan, ग़िज़ा ġizā, गिजा gijā

food in Tamil

any substance consumed by living organisms to sustain life
சாப்பாடு cāppāṭu, உணவு uṇavu

food in Marathi

any substance consumed by living organisms to sustain life
खाणे khāṇe, अन्न anna
foodstuff
खाणे khāṇe

food in Urdu

any substance consumed by living organisms to sustain life
کھانا khānā, بھوجَن bhojan, غِذا ġizā
More languagesFewer languages
food in Bengali
খাদ্য khaddo, খাবার khabar
food in Telugu
ఆహారం āhāraṁ, తిండి tiṇḍi, బోనము bōnamu, భోజనము bhōjanamu
food in Malayalam
ആഹാരം āhāraṁ, ഭക്ഷണം bhakṣaṇaṁ, ഫുഡ് phuḍŭ, ശാപ്പാട് śāppāṭŭ
food in Kannada
ಕೂತ kūta, ಬೋನ bōna
food in Punjabi
ਅਹਾਰ ahār, ਖਾਣਾ khāṇā
food in Gujarati
ખાવાનું khāvānũ
food in Odia
ଖାଦ୍ୟ khādya
food in Sanskrit
खाद्य khādya, भोजन bhojana, अन्न anna, प्सुरस् psuras
food in Sinhala
කෑම kǣma, ආහාර āhāra
food in Assamese
খোৱাবস্তু khüabostu, খানা khana
food in Nepali
खाना khānā
food in Pashto
ډوډۍ ḍwoḍay, غذا ǧezā
food in Tagalog
pagkain
food in Arabic
طَعَام ṭaʕām, أَكْل ʔakl, غِذَاء ḡiḏāʔ
food in Malay
makanan
food in Indonesian
makanan, pangan
food in Thai
อาหาร aa-hǎan, ของกิน kɔ̌ɔng-gin
food in Vietnamese
thức ăn, đồ ăn, thực phẩm
food in Myanmar
စားစရာ ca:ca.ra, အစားအစာ a.ca:a.ca, အစား a.ca:, အာဟာရ ahara.
Dzongkha
ལྟོ lto

Examples of food in a sentence

  • It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible.2013 June 29, “A punch in the gut”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, pages 72–3:
  • In this moment there is life and food / For future years.1798, William Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey:
  • [Verse 2:Kano]:If you've been shotting in the manor from way back when and you ain't on a kilo ting, I don't wanna hear about cunch and food and tings, man don't do those tings.2016 March 4, “3 Wheel-Ups” (track 4), in Made in the Manor, performed by Kano (British musician),Giggs (rapper),Wiley (musician):

All 40 example sentences with food

Synonyms of food

26 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of food

Forms of food

pluralfoods

Plural of food: foods

Origin of food

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”). Cognate with Scots fuid (“food”), Low German föde, vöde (“food”), West Frisian fiedsel (“food”), Dutch voedsel (“food”) Danish føde (“food”), Swedish föda (“food”), Icelandic fæða, fæði (“food”), Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐌳𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (fōdeins, “food”), Latin pānis (“bread, food”), Latin pāscō (“feed, nourish”, verb). Related to fodder, foster.

Words formed from food

Phrases with food

144 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about food

What does food mean?
Food means any solid substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life.
What is food in Hindi?
Food in Hindi is खाना (khānā), भोजन (bhojan), ग़िज़ा (ġizā). See Food meaning in Hindi.
How do you use food in a sentence?
It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible.
What part of speech is food?
Food is a noun.
How do you pronounce food?
Food is pronounced /fuːd/.
What is the plural of food?
The plural of food is foods.

Words near food in the dictionary

  1. Fooching
  2. Foochow
  3. Foochowese
  4. Foochownese
  5. Foochows
  6. food
  7. food additive
  8. food additives
  9. food allergies
  10. food allergy
  11. food and board

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: food (page history and authors). 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-uk-food.ogg, En_US_Food.wav, Fʏːd.wav.

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