foal
Americannoun
verb (used with or without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
- unfoaled adjective
Etymology
Origin of foal
before 950; (noun) Middle English fole, Old English fola; cognate with Old High German folo ( German Fohlen ); akin to Latin pullus young animal, Greek pôlos foal; (v.) Middle English, derivative of the noun
Explanation
A foal is a baby horse. Most horses give birth to only one foal at a time, though occasionally they have two. You can use the word foal for a horse that's younger than one year old — after turning one, a foal becomes a yearling. Foals can be either male, also called a colt, or female, also called a filly. When a mare, or adult female horse, has a baby, you can say she foals. The Old English root word, fola, means "foal" or "colt."
Vocabulary lists containing foal
The Horse and His Boy
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The War That Saved My Life
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"Rachel the Clever"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A brown foal with a white stripe on its muzzle teetered on toothpick legs.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 7, 2025
The farm staff considered the idea of trying to find an orphan foal to give to the bereaved donkey, but Mr Best said he realised why that wouldn't work.
From BBC • May 3, 2025
Staff at Dalscone Farm in Dumfries now have a unique family-of-three after a series of events left the two mothers believing the foal was theirs.
From BBC • May 3, 2025
As a May foal, he was a little late developing.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2025
The foal grew into a horse called Sleipnir, a huge gray stallion, the fastest and the strongest horse that ever there had been or ever there would be, a horse that could outrun the wind.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
