ford

/fɔːd//fɔɹd/

ford noun: a location where a stream is shallow and the bottom has good footing, making it possible to cross from one side to the other with no bridge, by walking, riding, or driving through the water; a crossing.

Image: Alan Murray-Rust, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

ford (plural fords)

A location where a stream is shallow and the bottom has good footing, making it possible to cross from one side to the other with no bridge, by walking, riding, or driving through the water; a crossing.
- He swam the Esk river where ford there was none.1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “(please specify the introduction or canto number, or chapter name)”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald...
Synonyms:

water-splash
A stream; a current.
- With water of the ford / Or of the clouds.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 34
- Permit my ghost to pass the Stygian ford.1700, [John] Dryden, “Ceyx and Alcyone”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

Verb

ford (third-person singular simple present fords, present participle fording, simple past and past participle forded)

To cross a stream by walking through it.
- He named that place, for it was near her dwelling, and on the road between Balerynie and Heriotside, which fords the Sker Burn.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
- Since the time of Seyavi the deer have shifted their feeding ground across the valley at the beginning of deep snows, by way of the Black Rock, fording the river at Charley's Butte, and making straight for the mouth of the cañon that is the easiest going to the winter pastures on Waban.1903, Mary Hunter Austin, The Land of Little Rain, Houghton Mifflin, pages 31–2
(broadly) To traverse any precarious environment.
- I spent several days fording through dense jungle.2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Rogueport
- I use my ample shoulders to ford through the crowd, ignoring a curse here, smothering boos here and there, and generally standing my ground in the face of the disapprovals of those I shove.2013 December 2, Uzor Maxim Uzoatu, “The Antiman”, in Munyori Literary Journal

Proper noun capitalized: Ford

Ford (countable and uncountable, plural Fords)

A topographic surname from Middle English for someone who lived near a ford.
- We spoke to Ford and other hairstylists over 40 about what to expect from these changes and how to treat them. Read on for the experts’ tips for helping your hair age gracefully.2025 February 16, Sophie Shaw, “5 tips for healthy hair in your 40s and beyond, from professional hairstylists”, in CNN
A male given name transferred from the surname.
A hamlet in Dinton with Ford and Upton parish, Buckinghamshire (OS grid ref SP7709).
A hamlet in Eckington parish, North East Derbyshire district, Derbyshire (OS grid ref SK4080).
A suburb of Plymouth, Devon (OS grid ref SX4656).
A hamlet in Holbeton parish, South Hams district, Devon (OS grid ref SX6150).
A hamlet in Temple Guiting parish, Cotswold district, Gloucestershire (OS grid ref SP0829).
A hamlet in Ford and Stoke Prior parish, south of Leominster, Herefordshire (OS grid ref SO5155)
A suburban area in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside (OS grid ref SJ3398).
A small village and civil parish in northern Northumberland (OS grid ref NT9437).
A village and civil parish west of Shrewsbury, Shropshire (OS grid ref SJ4113).
A village and civil parish in Arun district, West Sussex (OS grid ref TQ0003).

Show 12 more meaningsShow fewer meanings

A small village in North Wraxall parish, Wiltshire (OS grid ref ST8375).
A village in Laverstock parish, near Salisbury, Wiltshire (OS grid ref SU1533).
A small village at the south-west end of Loch Awe, Argyll and Bute council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NN8603).
A hamlet in Wolfscastle community, Pembrokeshire, Wales (OS grid ref SM9526).
A ghost town in Bartow County, Georgia.
A minor city and township in Ford County, Kansas.
An unincorporated community in Clark County, Kentucky.
A township in Kanabec County, Minnesota.
An unincorporated community in Dinwiddie County, Virginia.
An unincorporated community in Stevens County, Washington.
A town in Taylor County, Wisconsin.
A carmaker, the Ford Motor Company; its brand.

Noun (2) capitalized: Ford

Ford (plural Fords)

A car, truck, tractor, or other vehicle of this make.
- Their grandparents always drove Fords.
- They have a Ford car now, and she don't seem so far away from me as she used to.1918, Willa Cather, My Antonia

ford meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

ford in Hindi

crossing: पाँझ pāñjh, पायाब pāyāb, घाट ghāṭ

ford in Tamil

ஆற்றின் ஆழமில் பகுதி

ford in Urdu

ford: تھل thal

ford in Bengali

হাঁটুজল, হাঁটিয়া পার হওয়া

More languagesFewer languages

ford in Telugu: రేవు rēvu
ford in Malayalam: കടവ്, കടത്ത്, നദിയുടെ ആഴംകുറഞ്ഞഭാഗം
ford in Kannada: ಕಾಲ್ಗಡ, ಕಾಲಕಡು
ford in Punjabi: فوڑ foṛ
ford in Sanskrit: स्थाघ sthāgha, गाध gādhá
ford in Pashto: ګودر gudar
ford in Tagalog: dabaw
ford in Arabic: مَخَاضَة maḵāḍa
ford in Malay: tohor, tohor sungai
ford in Persian: فرناد farnâd, پایاب pâyâb, گدار godâr
ford in Vietnamese: chỗ cạn

Examples of ford in a sentence

The noncommittal Indians would give no counsel as to fording.
Ford said the underlying enabler would be digital ticketing, claiming that passengers will want touch-free travel.
Ford and Mazda have also developed internal combustion engined vehicles with hydrogen power.

All 25 example sentences with ford

Synonyms of ford

water-splash

Forms of ford

Noun
plural	fords
alternative form	foorth
plural	Fords
Verb
third-person singular present	fords
present participle	fording
past participle	forded
past	forded
Proper noun
plural	Fords
alternative form	fforde

Plural of ford: fords

Origin of ford

From Middle English fōrd, from Old English ford, from Proto-West Germanic *furdu, from Proto-Germanic *furduz, from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (“crossing”). Doublet of firth, fjord, and fjard, all via Old Norse; and port, distantly via Latin. Cognate with Low German Föörd, Dutch voord, German Furt, Norwegian and Danish fjord. See also forth and Persian پل (pol, “bridge”).

Words formed from ford

Phrases with ford

Words that rhyme with ford

40 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ford

What does ford mean?: Ford means a location where a stream is shallow and the bottom has good footing, making it possible to cross from one side to the other with no bridge, by walking, riding, or driving through the water; a crossing.
What is ford in Hindi?: Ford in Hindi is पाँझ (pāñjh), पायाब (pāyāb), घाट (ghāṭ). See Ford meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is ford?: Ford can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce ford?: Ford is pronounced /fɔːd/ (UK).
What is the plural of ford?: The plural of ford is fords.

Words near ford in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-ford.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Ford.wav.

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