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• foot
  foot

  noun

  (in vertebrates) the terminal part of the leg, below the ankle joint, on which the body stands and moves.
• Foot
  Foot

  noun

  Michael ( Mackintosh ). 1913–2010, British Labour politician and journalist; secretary of state for employment (1974–76); leader of the House of Commons (1976–79); leader of the Labour Party (1980–83)

foot

American  

[foot] / fʊt /

noun

• feet,
  plural
• foots
  plural

1. (in vertebrates) the terminal part of the leg, below the ankle joint, on which the body stands and moves.

2. (in invertebrates) any part similar in position or function.

3. such a part considered as the organ of locomotion.

4. a unit of length, originally derived from the length of the human foot. It is divided into 12 inches and equal to 30.48 centimeters. ft., f.

5. foot soldiers; infantry.

6. walking or running motion; pace.

   swift of foot.

7. quality or character of movement or motion; tread; step.

8. any part or thing resembling a foot, as in function, placement, shape, etc.

9. Furniture.

   1. a shaped or ornamented feature terminating a leg at its lower part.

   2. any of several short legs supporting a central shaft, as of a pedestal table.

10. a rim, flange, or flaring part, often distinctively treated, serving as a base for a table furnishing or utensil, as a glass, teapot, or candlestick.

11. the part of a stocking, sock, etc., covering the foot.

12. the lowest part, or bottom, of anything, as of a hill, ladder, page, etc.

13. a supporting part; base.

14. the part of anything opposite the top or head.

    He waited patiently at the foot of the checkout line.

15. the end of a bed, grave, etc., toward which the feet are placed.

    Put the blanket at the foot of the bed, please.

16. Printing. the part of the type body that forms the sides of the groove, at the base.

17. the last, as of a series.

18. that which is written at the bottom, as the total of an account.

19. Prosody. a group of syllables constituting a metrical unit of a verse.

20. Usually foots

    1. sediment or dregs.

    2. footlight.

21. Nautical. the lower edge of a sail.

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verb (used without object)

• foots,
  present (3rd person singular)
• footed,
  past participle,  past
• footing
  present participle

1. to walk; go on foot (often followed byit ).

   We'll have to foot it.

2. to move the feet rhythmically, as to music or in dance (often followed byit ).

3. (of vessels) to move forward; sail.

   to foot briskly across the open water.

verb (used with object)

• foots,
  present (3rd person singular)
• footed,
  past participle,  past
• footing
  present participle

1. to walk or dance on.

   footing the cobblestones of the old city.

2. to perform (a dance).

   cavaliers footing a galliard.

3. to traverse on or as if on foot.

4. to make or attach a foot to.

   to foot a stocking.

5. to pay or settle.

   I always end up footing the bill.

6. to add (a column of figures) and set the sum at the foot (often followed byup ).

7. to seize with talons, as a hawk.

8. to establish.

9. Archaic. to kick, especially to kick away.

10. Obsolete. to set foot on.

idioms

1. get off on the right / wrong foot, to begin favorably or unfavorably.

   He got off on the wrong foot with a tactless remark about his audience.

2. put one's foot down, to take a firm stand; be decisive or determined.

3. on foot, by walking or running, rather than by riding.

4. under foot, in the way.

   That cat is always under foot when I'm getting dinner.

5. have one foot in the grave. grave.

6. put one's best foot forward,

   1. to attempt to make as good an impression as possible.

   2. to proceed with all possible haste; hurry.

7. set foot in / on, to go on or into; enter: Also step foot inon

   Don't set foot in this office again!

8. get / have / a / one's foot in the door, to succeed in achieving an initial stage or step.

9. put one's foot in / into it, to make an embarrassing blunder. Also put one's foot ininto one's mouth

Foot ¹ British  

/ fʊt /

noun

1. Michael ( Mackintosh ). 1913–2010, British Labour politician and journalist; secretary of state for employment (1974–76); leader of the House of Commons (1976–79); leader of the Labour Party (1980–83)

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foot ² British  

/ fʊt /

noun

1. the part of the vertebrate leg below the ankle joint that is in contact with the ground during standing and walking

2. the part of a garment that covers a foot

3. any of various organs of locomotion or attachment in invertebrates, including molluscs

4. botany the lower part of some plant structures, as of a developing moss sporophyte embedded in the parental tissue

5. 1. ft. a unit of length equal to one third of a yard or 12 inches. 1 Imperial foot is equivalent to 0.3048 metre

   2. any of various units of length used at different times and places, typically about 10 per cent greater than the Imperial foot

6. any part resembling a foot in form or function

   the foot of a chair

7. the lower part of something; base; bottom

   the foot of the page

   the foot of a hill

8. the end of a series or group

   the foot of the list

9. manner of walking or moving; tread; step

   a heavy foot

10. 1. infantry, esp in the British army

    2. ( as modifier )

       a foot soldier

11. any of various attachments on a sewing machine that hold the fabric in position, such as a presser foot for ordinary sewing and a zipper foot

12. music

    1. a unit used in classifying organ pipes according to their pitch, in terms of the length of an equivalent column of air

    2. this unit applied to stops and registers on other instruments

13. printing

    1. the margin at the bottom of a page

    2. the undersurface of a piece of type

14. prosody a group of two or more syllables in which one syllable has the major stress, forming the basic unit of poetic rhythm

15. an action, appointment, etc, that provides an initial step towards a desired goal, esp one that is not easily attainable

16. to be of the opposite religion to that which is regarded as acceptable or to that of the person who is speaking

17. an expression of disbelief, often of the speaker's own preceding statement

    he didn't know, my foot! Of course he did!

18. archaic in manner of movement

    fleet of foot

19. 1. walking or running

    2. in progress; astir; afoot

20. informal near to death

21. informal in an auspicious manner

22. informal in an inauspicious manner

23. to make a mistake

24. 1. to try to do one's best

    2. to hurry

25. informal

    1. to act firmly

    2. to increase speed (in a motor vehicle) by pressing down on the accelerator

26. informal to blunder

27. to initiate or start (something)

28. to oppress

29. on the ground; beneath one's feet

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verb

1. to dance to music (esp in the phrase foot it )

2. (tr) to walk over or set foot on; traverse (esp in the phrase foot it )

3. (tr) to pay the entire cost of (esp in the phrase foot the bill )

4. archaic (usually foll by up) to add up

foot Scientific  

/ ft /

• feet
  plural

1. A unit of length in the US Customary System equal to 1/3 of a yard or 12 inches (30.48 centimeters).

2. See Table at measurement

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foot More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing foot

• bound hand and foot
• caught flat-footed
• feet
• get off on the wrong foot
• not touch with a ten-foot pole
• on foot
• on the right foot
• one foot in the grave
• play footsie
• put one's best foot forward
• put one's foot down
• put one's foot in it
• set foot
• shoe is on the other foot
• shoot oneself in the foot
• wait on hand and foot

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Usage

In front of another noun, the plural for the unit of length is foot: a 20-foot putt; his 70-foot ketch. Foot can also be used instead of feet when mentioning a quantity and in front of words like tall: four foot of snow; he is at least six foot tall

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• footless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• feet
  plural
• foots
  plural

Participles

• footing
  present
• footed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• foot
  simple
• foots
  simple
• have footed
  perfect
• has footed
  perfect
• am footing
  progressive
• are footing
  progressive
• is footing
  progressive
• have been footing
  perfect progressive
• has been footing
  perfect progressive

Past

• footed
  simple
• had footed
  perfect
• was footing
  progressive
• were footing
  progressive
• had been footing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will foot
  simple
• will have footed
  perfect
• will be footing
  progressive
• will have been footing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of foot

before 900; Middle English; Old English fōt; cognate with German Fuss; akin to Latin pēs (stem ped- ), Greek poús (stem pod- )

Explanation

Your foot is like your leg's hand, and a foot is twelve inches. When you walk, you go by foot. Since feet are so important, the word foot has many meanings. The main one is that thing below your ankle — people have feet, and so do many animals. The lower part of a bed is the foot of the bed — the foot of a mountain is also where you would expect it. The lower part of anything could be called a foot. Paying for something is footing the bill, and footing up a column of numbers is adding them up.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

foot Foot feet foots footed footing

"There is so much that should be addressed for people to be treated evenly, and at the moment, if you live rurally you're on the back foot," said Rhianon.

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

One student said Kotlikoff ran over his foot when he pulled away.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

Fontaine got his foot in the door through his father.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026

What happened to your friend is an all-too-common occurrence, and Medicare can foot the cost for necessary inpatient rehab, as long as its eligibility requirements are met.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

I left the basket at the foot of the staircase that clung to the side of the building.

From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu

"It means that to an extent crime does pay in football," Foot said.

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026

"It would still be something that Spurs fans would celebrate," said Tristan Foot, secretary of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust.

From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026

He soon volunteered to join the regular army and sailed for Canada in 1809, where he entered the 41st Regiment of Foot.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 7, 2026

Dick’s Sporting Goods has faced challenges fixing Foot Locker since acquiring it last year.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

Big Foot crosses his arms in an imitation of me, which Fry finds so hilarious, he does it too.

From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson

In 1997 the world’s fastest computer occupied about 2,500 square feet, but today we have that computing power in our pockets.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

They’re doing it from this little antechamber through 7 feet of tubing.

From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2026

The historic main residence, which dates to the 1890s, offers approximately 8,500 square feet of living space and boasts 9.5 bathrooms.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 6, 2026

—Jed Bernstein, who runs a performing arts nonprofit in Aspen, on a renovation that will move the city’s airport runway by 80 feet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

His accusation crashes like a pile of rocks at my feet and everybody’s gaze swivels to land on me.

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

Levon White, a third-grader in Newman Lake, Wash., said he orders sushi once a month when he visits his best friend’s grandmother, who happily foots the bill.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 2, 2026

Lyle Foster has a pop from the edge of the box and a deflection almost wrong foots Ivo Grbic in the Sheffield United net but he manages to save.

From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2024

And unless the court stipulates otherwise, the party who requests the testimony foots the bill.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2022

The government now foots the bill for any Singaporean citizen, permanent resident and holder of a long-term work pass who is sick with COVID-19, unless they tested positive shortly after returning from overseas.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 8, 2021

He turned on the foots and she walked out on the apron and looked over the thousand dark empty waiting raked seats.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

Working families footed the bill in two forms.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026

The 54-year-old, who lives in Virginia, said she had a higher salary and felt like she footed more of their expenses, including for their home and two kids.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 19, 2026

One original capped with white chocolate and footed with dark.

From Salon ● Feb. 5, 2026

Craig Revel Horwood, acerbic as ever, called it "flat footed", and Clarke and his partner Alexis Warr crashed out with the lowest score this evening - at 27.

From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2025

La Llorona removed the lids from the footed pie dishes, picked two of them up, and pointed to the others for me.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

Klitschko has said that Kyiv -- largely spared from the devastation wrought near the frontlines in nearly five years of conflict -- should now be on a war footing due to the upsurge in attacks.

From Barron's ● Oct. 4, 2026

Here’s a simple step you can take to help you prepare for retirement, manage expectations and maintain your financial footing.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

The central role of the promoter — and the lack of genuine athletic competition in matches — puts wrestlers and management on remarkably unequal footing.

From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026

Stocks appear set to start the week on a strong footing and oil futures are lower for the fourth day in a row.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026

In this way, they gradually absorb the artistic tradition of their time and place until they have gained a firm footing in it.

From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson