Word.ws English Dictionary

foulsome

/ˈfaʊlsəm/

foulsome adjective: characterised or marked by foulness or filth; filthy; (by extension) wretched.

Adjective

foulsome (comparative more foulsome, superlative most foulsome)

  1. Characterised or marked by foulness or filth; filthy; (by extension) wretched.
    • “Hah. And a good thing it is that you have. It's almost time for us to leave this foulsome planet, and we'll be needing all the help we can muster.” “It's not a foulsome planet!” Rita snapped.1983, Ben Bova, Gremlins Go Home
    • Manure thus becomes a symbol of the alchemy effected by divine grace, which is capable of transforming something odious and foulsome into something beautiful and glorious, thus making us meritorious of heavenly reward: [...]1998, A. Jesuraja, Glimpses of the Divine

Forms of foulsome

comparativemore foulsome
superlativemost foulsome

Origin of foulsome

A variant of fulsome, from Middle English fulsome (“arousing disgust, loathsome”), remodelled after foul. Equivalent to foul + -some. Cognate with Scots foulsome, fowsum.

Questions about foulsome

What does foulsome mean?
Foulsome means characterised or marked by foulness or filth; filthy; (by extension) wretched.
What part of speech is foulsome?
Foulsome is an adjective.
How do you pronounce foulsome?
Foulsome is pronounced /ˈfaʊlsəm/.

Words near foulsome in the dictionary

  1. fouls out
  2. fouls up
  3. Foulsham
  4. Foulshams
  5. foulsmelling
  6. foulsome
  7. foulé
  8. foumart
  9. foumarts
  10. foun'
  11. found

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: foulsome (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.

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