eat
/it/verb, noun
eat is spelled E-A-T: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 135 times per million words in written English, the 770th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, eat means “To consume (something solid or semi-solid, usually food) by putting it into the mouth and swallowing it” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in eat?
| Letters | 3: E-A-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 135 times per million words; the 770th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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 eat?
Eat appears 135 times per million words in written English, the 770th 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 eat?
- UK /iːt/
- US /it/
Eat 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: En-uk-to_eat.ogg, En-us-eat.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with eat
Also written: eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die, eat, drink, and be merry.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with eat?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as eat from its last stressed vowel (/it/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: tea, ate, 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 eat
- eats present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- eating participle, present
- ate past, singular, he/she/it, plural
- eaten participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does eat mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To consume (something solid or semi-solid, usually food) by putting it into the mouth and swallowing it.
He's eating an apple.
- 2
To consume a meal.
What time do we eat this evening?
- 3
To have a particular quality of diet; to be well-fed or underfed.
I try to eat healthy these days.
- 4
To be ingested.
It's a soup that eats like a meal.
- 5
To be savored or enjoyed; to taste in a specified way.
It's an unattractive dish, but it eats pretty good.
- 6
To destroy, consume, or use up.
This project is eating up all the money.
- 7
informalTo consume (an exception, an event, etc.) so that other parts of the program do not receive it.
- 8
informalTo damage, destroy, or fail to eject a removable part or an inserted object.
The VHS recorder just ate the tape and won't spit it out.
noun
- 1
colloquialSomething to be eaten; a meal; a food item.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Eat in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | manger, bouffer , ronger |
| German | essen, fressen, ässe, èssn , speisen |
| Portuguese | comer |
| Spanish | comer, jamear, morfar, manducar, yantar, papear |
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 eat come from?
From Middle English eten, from Old English etan (“to eat”), from Proto-West Germanic *etan, from Proto-Germanic *etaną (“to eat”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁édti, from *h₁ed- (“to eat”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).