Feeding is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. Terminology often uses either the suffix -vore from Latin vorare, meaning 'to devour', or phagy, from Greek φαγειν, meaning 'to eat'.

Polyphagy is the ability of an animal to eat a variety of food, whereas monophagy is the intolerance of every food except of one specific type (see generalist and specialist species).

By mode of ingestion

• filter feeding - obtaining nutrients from particles suspended in water
• deposit feeding - obtaining nutrients from particles suspended in soil
• fluid feeding - obtaining nutrients by consuming other organisms' fluids
• bulk feeding - obtaining nutrients by eating part or all of an organism

By mode of digestion

• Extra-cellular digestion - excreting digesting enzymes and then reabsorbing the products
• Myzocytosis - one cell pierces another using a feeding tube, and sucks out cytoplasm
• Phagocytosis - engulfing food matter into living cells, where it is digested

By food type

Another classification refers to the specific food animals specialize in eating, such as:

• Carnivore - the eating of animals
• Hematophagy - eating blood
• Insectivore - eating insects
• Lepidophagy - eating fish scales
• Man-eater - eating humans
• Molluscivore - eating molluscs
• Mucophagy - eating mucus
• Ophiophagy - eating snakes
• Piscivore - eating fish
• Spongivore - eating sponges
• Herbivore - the eating of plants
• Folivore - eating leaves
• Frugivore - eating fruits
• Graminivore - eating grasses
• Granivore - eating seeds
• Nectarivore - eating nectar
• Palynivore - eating pollen
• Xylophagy - eating wood
• Omnivore - the eating of both plants and animals
• Fungivore - the eating of fungus
• Bacterivore - the eating of bacteria

The eating of non-living or decaying matter:

• Coprophagy - eating faeces
• Detritivore - eating decomposing material
• Geophagy - eating inorganic earth
• Scavenger - eating carrion