footprint
noun
Simple meaning
The impression of the foot in a soft substance such as sand or snow.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fuutprintSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfʊtpɹɪnt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The impression of the foot in a soft substance such as sand or snow.
Space required by a piece of equipment.
The surface space occupied by a structure.
A trace left behind that gives evidence of some action having occurred.
A company's geographic market presence.
figurativein the plural
What a person has done before, as a profession or lifestyle, serving as a model for others.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Space required by a piece of equipment.
Used this way, footprint is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use footprint
- “The police made casts of the footprints in the soft earth outside the window.”noun
- “The footprints of an earlier civilization.”noun
- “The computer had a desktop footprint of 10 by 16 inches.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Evidence in the form of footprints.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.