Word.ws English Dictionary

foss

/fɒs/US/fɑs/

foss is the alternative spelling of fosse.

Meaning of fosse

Noun

fosse (plural fosses)

  1. A ditch or moat.
    • [T]he ground was […] scattered with the masses of ruined buildings, that had formerly been part of the outward fortifications, but of which some were fallen into the fosse, and others overgrown with alder, ash, and arbeal.1791, Charlotte Smith, Celestina, Broadview, published 2004, page 486

See all 2 meanings of fosse

Noun (1)

US/fɔs/

foss (plural fosses)

  1. (Northern England) A waterfall.
    • Another of his flock was spotted garrotted, one found twisted and drowned at the bottom of a foss and a third split cleanly from scut to teeth.2017, Benjamin Myers, The Gallows Pole, Bloomsbury, published 2019, page 101

Proper noun capitalized: Foss

Foss

  1. A surname.
  2. A town in Washita County, Oklahoma.
  3. An unincorporated community in Tillamook County, Oregon, United States.
  4. A minor river in North Yorkshire, England, that joins the Ouse in York.

Noun (2) capitalized: FOSS

FOSS (uncountable)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Free and Open Source Software.

Forms of foss

pluralfosses

Origin of foss

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

From Icelandic or Norwegian foss, both from Old Norse fors (“waterfall”). Doublet of force (“waterfall”).

Meaning "fox". From Old Saxon fohs, fuhs, from Proto-West Germanic *fuhs, from Proto-Germanic *fuhsaz.

Words formed from foss

Words that rhyme with foss

27 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about foss

What does foss mean?
Foss means a waterfall.
What is foss the alternative spelling of?
Foss is the alternative spelling of fosse.
What part of speech is foss?
Foss can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce foss?
Foss is pronounced /fɑs/ (US).
What is the plural of foss?
The plural of foss is fosses.

Words near foss in the dictionary

  1. Fosnaugh
  2. Fosnaughs
  3. Fosowskie
  4. fosphenytoin
  5. fosravuconazole
  6. foss
  7. Foss Cross
  8. fossa
  9. fossa of Rosenmüller
  10. fossae
  11. fossane

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foss (page history and authors); Foss (page history and authors); FOSS (page history and authors); fosse (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-foss.wav.

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