footfall means the sound made by a footstep; also, the footstep or step itself. It carries an Arena rating of 1861, earned across 153 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, footfall ranks #144 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #412 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #620 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #1,608 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
footfall is pronounced /ˈfʊtfɔːl/.
Why “footfall” is a great word
FOOTFALL — [Noun] The sound made by a footstep, or the number of pedestrians entering or passing through a place in a given time. From foot ("part of the human leg below the ankle") + fall ("act of moving to a lower position", noun). First recorded in use c. 1600, perhaps first by Shakespeare. Unlike "footstep" (which denotes the action or distance of a step) or "traffic" (a broad term for movement), footfall isolates either the resonant consequence of that motion or its cold statistical aggregate. It is the intimate, hollow knock of a sole on an oak stair in a sleeping house, the syncopated pattering of rain-slicked shoes on a city pavement, and the silent, counted click of a turnstile in an empty shop—the fundamental unit by which we measure both solitude and congregation.
Etymology
From foot (“part of the human leg below the ankle”) + fall (“act of moving to a lower position under the effect of gravity”, noun).
noun
- The sound made by a footstep; also, the footstep or step itself.
- The number of pedestrians going into or passing through a place (especially a commercial venue such as a shop) during a specified time period; also, the pedestrians in a particular place regarded collectively; foot traffic.e.g.“However, footfall is still below pre-Covid levels while there is also a surge of incoming supply. - "Are There Too Many Retail Malls In Malaysia?", BFM 89.9”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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