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Footsteps vs Footfall - What's the difference?

footsteps | footfall |

As nouns the difference between footsteps and footfall

is that footsteps is plural of footstep while footfall is the sound made by a footstep.

footsteps

English

Noun

(head)

    • footfall

    English

    Alternative forms

    * foot-fall

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable) The sound made by a footstep.
  • * 1611 , , The Tempest , act 2, sc. 2,
    • . . . like hedgehogs which
    Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount
    Their pricks at my footfall .
  • * 1916 , , "The Hungry Stones," in The Hungry Stones And Other Stories ,
    • I heard many footfalls , as if a large number of persons were rushing down the steps.
  • *
  • (chiefly, British, uncountable) Foot (pedestrian) traffic.
  • * 1883 , , The Silverado Squatters , ch. 1,
    • This stir of change and these perpetual echoes of the moving footfall , haunt the land. Men move eternally, still chasing Fortune.
  • * 2008 , " Bargains galore in battle of the high street," The Scotsman , 9 Dec. (retrieved 11 Dec. 2008),
    • With high-street stores desperate to increase footfall and buck the financial downturn, retailers have started issuing discount vouchers.