What Does 'Foid' Mean? The Incel Slang Term Used To Describe Women Explained

If you’ve ever stumbled into the murkier corners of the internet and heard the slang term "foid," congrats! You’ve accidentally unlocked a part of the incel dictionary — a rizzless world where women are "femoids" (female + android), only capable of repeated preprogrammed phrases and chasing after Chads.

"Foid" is the shorthand for this charming little insult, popularized among incel keyboard warriors whose last interaction with a woman was presumably screaming at their mom to get out of their rooms.

So where exactly did this slang originate, how did it spread and how is it used online? Here's a brief internet history of the term.

Where Does The Term 'Foid' Come From?

The term "foid" is shorthand for the incel slang term "femoid," which is used to describe women as inhuman, robotic beings. One of the earliest known posts using the phrase "foid" can be traced back to April 10th, 2018, when an anonymous user on 4chan's /r9k/ board posted an image that read, "Around a foid, be paranoid."

How Did Use Of The Term 'Foid' Spread Online?

The term continued to appear on 4chan in the late 2010s, as seen in a post to the board /pol/ in December 2018, where someone posted an incel-lingo-heavy post using the terms "foid," "chad," and "red pill."

The use of the term "foid" as popular incel lingo is further supported by an investigative report posted by Australia's TheFeedSBS in which a journalist filmed herself eating lunch with a group of young "incels" who used "foid" at the 1:22 timestamp in the video.

What Are Some Recent Examples Of People Using The Term 'Foid'?

The term made a resurgence on Elon Musk's Twitter in 2023 and 2024, as seen in a tweet posted by X / Twitter user @TheManlet_King in October 2023. The meme read, "You let a foid into your life and where did it get you?"

More recently, on November 17th, X user @uncledoomer posted a meme containing the term "foidslop," which the poster equates to the idea of girl dinner. The post gathered over 20,000 likes in a day.

For the full history of the term Foid, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.