Word.ws English Dictionary

footfall

Syllables: foot·fallUK/ˈfʊtfɔːl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈfɵtfoːl/

footfall noun: the sound made by a footstep; also, the footstep or step itself.

Noun

footfall (countable and uncountable, plural footfalls)

  1. (countable) The sound made by a footstep; also, the footstep or step itself.
    • [L]ike Hedg-hogs vvhich / Lye tumbling in my bare-foote vvay, and mount / Their pricks at my foot-fall: ſometime am I / All vvound vvith Adders, vvho vvith clouen tongues / Doe hiſſe me into madneſſe: […]1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
    • They are treading fast and thick. For weeks you could have heard a foot-fall.1826 May 18 (date written), Walter Scott, “[Entry dated 18 May 1826]”, in David Douglas, editor, The Journal of Sir Walter Scott […], volume I, Edinburgh: David Douglas, published 1890, →OCLC, page...
  2. (Malaysia, uncountable) The number of pedestrians going into or passing through a place (especially a commercial venue such as a shop) during a specified time period; also, the pedestrians in a particular place regarded collectively; foot traffic.
    • However, footfall is still below pre-Covid levels while there is also a surge of incoming supply. - "Are There Too Many Retail Malls In Malaysia?", BFM 89.9
    • Once up, the cross-border RTS project, which can ferry an expected peak capacity of up to 10,000 passengers per hour per direction between Singapore’s Woodlands North MRT station and Bukit Chagar station in Johor Bahru, will lead to a significant increase in footfall in the area. - The Straits Times

footfall meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada and Tagalog

footfall in Urdu

قدم کی چاپ

footfall in Malayalam

പാദപതനശബ്ദം, കാലടിയൊച്ച, കാലൊച്ച, ചവുട്ടടിശബ്ദം

footfall in Kannada

ಹೆಜ್ಜೆಯುಲಿ

footfall in Tagalog

sound made by a footstep
yabag, yapak

Examples of footfall in a sentence

  • He did not hear her approach, her footfall was so light; and it was with the same silent step she went into the room, and knelt down beside him, and put her hands and face on his knee, […]1873, William Black, “Redintegratio Amoris”, in A Princess of Thule. […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 440:
  • I thought of going out for a ride, and was about to get up when I heard a footfall on the steps behind.1916 October, Rabindranath Tagore, “The Hungry Stones”, in C[harles] F[reer] Andrews [et al.], transl., The Hungry Stones and Other...
  • I expect him with every footfall I hear on the GCN stairs.1979 December 8, Nancy Walker, “Remembering David Brill”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 20, page 15:
  • This stir of change and these perpetual echoes of the moving footfall, haunt the land.1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, “In the Valley. III. Napa Wine.”, in The Silverado Squatters, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, page 46:

All 10 example sentences with footfall

Forms of footfall

pluralfootfalls
alternative formfoot-fall

Origin of footfall

From foot (“part of the human leg below the ankle”) + fall (“act of moving to a lower position under the effect of gravity”, noun).

Questions about footfall

What does footfall mean?
Footfall means the sound made by a footstep; also, the footstep or step itself.
What is footfall in Urdu?
Footfall in Urdu is قدم کی چاپ. See Footfall meaning in Urdu.
How do you use footfall in a sentence?
He did not hear her approach, her footfall was so light; and it was with the same silent step she went into the room, and knelt down beside him, and put her hands and face on his knee, […]
What part of speech is footfall?
Footfall is a noun.
How do you pronounce footfall?
Footfall is pronounced /ˈfʊtfɔːl/ (UK).
What is the plural of footfall?
The plural of footfall is footfalls.

Words near footfall in the dictionary

  1. footering
  2. footers
  3. footest
  4. footeth
  5. footfag
  6. footfall
  7. footfalls
  8. footfarer
  9. footfarers
  10. footfault
  11. footfaulted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: footfall (page history and authors); footfall (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); footfall (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); footfall (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-us-footfall.ogg.

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