foal
Americannoun
-
foals
plural
verb (used with or without object)
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foals,
present (3rd person singular)
-
foaled,
past participle, past
-
foaling
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
foalsimple
-
foalssimple
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have foaledperfect
-
has foaledperfect
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am foalingprogressive
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are foalingprogressive
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is foalingprogressive
-
have been foalingperfect progressive
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has been foalingperfect progressive
Past
-
foaledsimple
-
had foaledperfect
-
was foalingprogressive
-
were foalingprogressive
-
had been foalingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
Each new foal bore the promise of outperforming a carefully chosen set of parents.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
Pletcher said a declining foal crop has led to fewer races, which means trainers have fewer opportunities to take the traditional step from maiden race to allowance race to stakes race.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
Two horses were dead when he arrived, including a foal that appeared stillborn or miscarried.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 22, 2026
Mr Cameron added that the mare of the first animal they lost "went back on her own to the area she was last with her foal".
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 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
Horse-obsessed Gurbanguly has churned out numerous books about Akhal-Tekes and even penned a rap song in honour of one of his foals.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
The consultants recommended that racing emulate the NBA and show off lifestyle content—“from foals at the farm to fashion and food at the races”—that would help the sport look cool.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
The 51-year-old told the BBC he was on his way to Canterbury to drop the foals off for a friend when the crash happened between junctions 24 and 25 eastbound at 08:50 BST on Saturday.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2023
A herd of about 40 mares, stallions and foals graze lazily on dry grass over the rugged Stolovi mountain in Serbia's southwest, one out of three such bands of wild horses in the Balkan country.
From Reuters ● Sep. 1, 2023
Curiously, Hard Tack appeared to be stamping his foals in a mold that was the polar opposite of his own.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Both donkeys had, in fact, foaled at the exact same time.
From BBC ● May 3, 2025
He also gave sworn friend Jamuqa for a mount Toqto’a’s yellowish white mare with a black tail and mane, a mare that had not foaled for several years.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
The purses are built from nominations of horses and stallions from the day a horse is foaled.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2023
According to one report, about 20,000 thoroughbreds are foaled every year in the U.S., and the Kentucky Derby takes only 20 three-year-olds.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 28, 2020
A regally bred mare named Brushup had foaled a near-black colt, a son of Man o’ War, and they couldn’t take their eyes off of him.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
That includes avoiding peak foaling periods and hot weather that would stress the horses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2025
Leigh says the bureau has erroneously concluded that peak foaling season is the same for all herds — from March 1 through June 30.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 8, 2023
“The foaling was filled with ease and elegance and both mom and baby are in excellent health and exude happiness,” a post on the site Zenyatta.com said.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 12, 2023
As Our Josephina began the unenviable act of foaling, the foal’s emerging hooves looked alarmingly large.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2015
He knowed, I reckon, that maybe I weren’t no horse foaling.
From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
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.
