fodder

noun

fod·​der ˈfä-dər 

1

: something fed to domestic animals

especially : coarse food for cattle, horses, or sheep

2

: inferior or readily available material used to supply a heavy demand

fodder for tabloids

This sort of breezy plot line has become cheap fodder for novelists and screenwriters …

—Sally Bedell

fodder transitive verb

Examples of fodder in a Sentence

His antics always make good fodder for the gossip columnists.

She often used her friends' problems as fodder for her novels.

Recent Examples on the Web

She had been seen without her wedding band on more than one occasion afterward, providing new fodder for wagging tongues. —Francesca Chambers, USA Today, 13 Dec. 2025

That includes avoiding being seen in public so that his personal life doesn’t become tabloid fodder. —Lizzie Lanuza, StyleCaster, 10 Dec. 2025

Is there anything so useful and intimate as a conversation with your teenager about scandalous language, vocabulary which any sane parent knows their kid knows, and which, because Catullus has formalized it in lovely hendecasyllables, becomes fodder for frank discussion? —Literary Hub, 10 Dec. 2025

Will this experience end up becoming fodder for his next script? —Jennifer Zhan, Vulture, 9 Dec. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English fōdor; akin to Old High German fuotar food — more at food

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing fodder

• cannon fodder

Rhymes for fodder

• broader
• dodder
• odder
• solder
• marauder

Kids Definition

fodder

noun

fod·​der ˈfäd-ər 

: coarse dry food (as cornstalks) for livestock