ate
[ˈʔɐ.te]noun, verb
ate is spelled A-T-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 4,015th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ate means “An elder sister” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ate is ates.
How many letters and syllables are in ate?
| Letters | 3: A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 22 times per million words; the 4,015th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is ate?
Ate appears 22 times per million words in written English, the 4,015th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce ate?
- [ˈʔɐ.te]
As a verb: /eɪt/, [eːt], /ɛt/.
Ate has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame--ate.wav, En-us-ate.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with ate
Sounds like: ait, eight, eyot (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with ate?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ate from its last stressed vowel (/eɪt/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: eat, tea, eta.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of ate
- ates plural
- et informal
- more -ate comparative
- most -ate superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does ate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An elder sister
- 2
A respectful title or form of address for an older woman.
verb
- 1
simple past of eat
- 2
colloquialnonstandardpast participle of eat
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Ate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does ate come from?
Borrowed from Tagalog ate (“elder sister”), from Hokkien 阿姊 (á-ché, “eldest sister”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).