Foul

How to spell foul

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce foul

What does foul mean?

1. adjectiveOffensive to the senses, dirty, or thoroughly unpleasant.
2. nounAn act that breaks the rules of a game.
3. verbTo make dirty, or to become entangled or obstructed.

Foul in a sentence

• adjective

  A foul smell drifted up from the blocked drain.

• noun

  The referee called a foul against the defender.

• verb

  Loose rope can foul the boat's propeller.

• adjective

  The hikers turned back when the weather grew foul.

• noun

  A late tackle counts as a foul in most leagues.

• verb

  Owners must not let their dogs foul the footpath.

Where does foul come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English word that comes straight from Old English fūl, meaning 'rotten', 'dirty', or 'stinking'. It traces back to a Proto-Germanic root fūlaz, which is also the ancestor of Dutch vuil and German faul, both carrying ideas of decay and filth. The same ancient root lies behind the related words 'filth' and 'defile', all circling around the notion of something gone bad. Over the centuries the meaning broadened from literal rottenness to anything offensive, unfair, or against the rules, which is how it ended up describing both bad weather and an illegal move in sport. The persistent spelling trap is that foul sounds exactly like 'fowl', the word for a bird, so writers must keep the meaning firmly in mind: foul means dirty or unfair, while fowl is a chicken or duck.

How the word is built

• foul (from Old English fūl: rotten, unclean); a single native root with no affixes