Meaning & use
footfall
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountablebusiness
The number of people who enter a shop, shopping area or other public place during a particular period.
Grammar: Uncountable: footfall has increased, not a footfall, when talking about visitor numbers.
Patterns
- footfall in somewhere
- footfall at somewhere
Footfall in the town center dropped sharply during the road works.
The mall reported a rise in footfall over the holiday weekend.
Shops rely on footfall, so they open near stations.
nouncountableliterary
The sound of a step as someone walks.
Grammar: Countable and literary: she heard a soft footfall behind her.
Patterns
- hear a footfall
- the sound of a footfall
She heard a quiet footfall in the corridor and froze.
The footfall on the stairs told him someone was coming.
A heavy footfall echoed across the empty hall.
Word forms
| plural | footfalls |
|---|
Common combinations
- high footfall
- The shop is in a high footfall area near the station.
- increase footfall
- The festival helped increase footfall in local cafes.
- footfall figures
- The council published monthly footfall figures.
- decline in footfall
- Retailers worry about the decline in footfall.
- drive footfall
- Free parking could drive footfall to the market.
Synonyms and how they differ
- foot traffic
- Foot traffic is the American equivalent and means the same flow of people.
- visitor numbers
- Visitor numbers is plainer and not limited to people on foot.
- footstep
- A footstep refers to one step or its sound, not to a count of people.
- customer traffic
- Customer traffic counts shoppers specifically and may include online visits.
Word family
Commonly confused: footfall or footfall vs foot fall?
footfall vs footfall vs foot fall
Footfall is written as one word; foot fall as two words is not the usual spelling.
Practice
The shop owner said the new tram stop would boost ___ and bring more customers through the door.
Choose one answer.
The number of people passing through a place is footfall. Footwear is shoes, a footnote is a note on a page, and footwork is movement of the feet.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “footfall”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.