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feed

/fiːd/
verbnoun

FEED meaning includes animal food and a steady supply; the four-letter word scores 8 points in Scrabble.

NWL Collins ENABLE

Verb 4 meanings

  1. To give (someone or something) food to eat.

    “Feed the dog every evening.”

  2. To eat (usually of animals).

    “Spiders feed on gnats and flies.”

  3. To give (someone or something) to (someone or something else) as food.

    “Don't feed him too much; he's still a baby.”

  4. To give to a machine to be processed.

    “Feed the paper gently into the document shredder.”

Noun 4 meanings

  1. Food given to (especially herbivorous) non-human animals.

    “They sell feed, riding helmets, and everything else for horses.”

  2. Something supplied continuously.

    “a satellite feed”

  3. The part of a machine that supplies the material to be operated upon.

    “the paper feed of a printer”

  4. The part of a fountain pen that supplies ink to the nib.

Definitions: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA) via Kaikki/Wiktextract

Where it comes from

Etymology

From Middle English fede, fed, from the verb (see above). Alternatively, perhaps from Old Norse fœða (“nourishment, food”), from Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną (“to feed”), whence also Old English fēdan (“to feed”).

Similar and opposite words

Similar
nourishfeast

FEED covers several kinds of supply: food given to animals, material delivered to a machine, or ink carried to a fountain pen's nib. It can also mean something continuously, such as a stream of information. That range makes FEED more than a food word, while its doubled E gives it a distinct letter pattern.

FEED at a glance

  • FEED is four letters long and scores 8 Scrabble points.
  • Its letter values are F=4, E=1, E=1, and D=2.
  • FEED has no anagrams in the listed word-game sources.
  • NEED, FEEL, and FEET are among its 23 one-letter neighbors.

FEED meaning in everyday and technical use

FEED meaning starts with something provided for an animal to eat. The word also describes a continuing supply: a news feed, for example, delivers updates rather than a single item. In a machine, the feed is the part that supplies material for processing.

The technical sense reaches a fountain pen, too: its feed carries ink to the nib. These meanings share an idea of delivery, but they name different things. Use the surrounding phrase to tell whether FEED means food, an ongoing stream, or a component.

How does FEED score and change?

FEED scores 8 points before any board premiums: the F contributes 4, both Es contribute 1 each, and D adds 2. The F supplies half the word's base score, so a letter premium on F matters more than one on either E. A word premium multiplies the full total instead.

Changing one letter produces familiar options such as NEED, FEEL, FEET, and SEED; the full neighbor set contains 23 words. FEED also rhymes with 12 listed words, including SEED, WEED, BREED, and SPEED. No anagram rearranges its letters into another listed word, so letter swaps are the productive route for building nearby plays. FEED appears in Collins, NWL2023, and ENABLE; check your game's word list before relying on any neighbor.

Rhymes with feed

All rhymes

One letter away

Change one letter, keep the rest

Questions people ask

What does FEED mean?
FEED means food given to animals, something continuously, or a part that delivers material. In a fountain pen, the feed carries ink to the nib. The intended sense depends on context: animal feed is food, while a machine feed is a supply component.
How many points is FEED worth in Scrabble?
FEED is worth 8 points before board bonuses. F is worth 4, each E is worth 1, and D is worth 2. The F is the strongest tile, accounting for half of the word's base score.
What words are one letter away from FEED?
NEED, FEEL, FEET, and SEED are familiar one-letter neighbors of FEED. The complete set has 23 entries, including less familiar forms such as FLED, DEED, and FEUD. FEED itself has no anagrams in the listed word-game sources.

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