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fat

/ˈfæt/adjective, noun, verb

fat is spelled F-A-T: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 71 times per million words in written English, the 1,486th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “fat vs phat” about 140 times a month (Google, United States). As a derogatory adjective, fat means “Carrying more fat than usual on one's body; plump; not lean or thin” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in fat?

Letters3: F-A-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing71 times per million words; the 1,486th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is fat?

Fat appears 71 times per million words in written English, the 1,486th 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 fat?

  • /ˈfæt/
  • /ˈfɛt/

Fat 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-us-fat.ogg, Fat.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with fat

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

fat vs phat140 G

Sounds like: phat (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with fat?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as fat.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: aft.

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 fat

  • fatter comparative
  • fattest superlative
  • fats plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • fatting participle, present
  • fatted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does fat mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    derogatoryCarrying more fat than usual on one's body; plump; not lean or thin.

    The fat man had problems going through the door.

  2. 2

    Thick; large.

    The fat wallets of the men from the city brought joy to the peddlers.

  3. 3

    Bulbous; rotund.

  4. 4

    Bountiful.

  5. 5

    Oily; greasy; unctuous; rich (said of food).

  6. 6

    obsoleteExhibiting the qualities of a fat animal; coarse; heavy; gross; dull; stupid.

  7. 7

    Fertile; productive.

    a fat soil; a fat pasture

  8. 8

    Rich; producing a large income; desirable.

    It's a fat contract for a fat part in the film, so he’ll grown fat on the profits.

noun

  1. 1

    A specialized animal tissue with high lipid content, used for long-term storage of energy: fat tissue.

    Mammals that hibernate have plenty of fat to keep them warm during the winter.

  2. 2

    Such tissue as food: the fatty portion of (or trimmings from) meat cuts.

    Ask the butcher for a few pounds of fat for our greens.

  3. 3

    A lipid that is solid at room temperature, which fat tissue contains and which is also found in the blood circulation; sometimes, a refined substance chemically resembling such naturally occurring lipids.

    Dietary fat is not the evil that it was once misapprehended to be; carbs are increasingly recognized as a bigger driver of atherosclerosis via chronic insulin resistance and the vascular processes that cascade from it.

  4. 4

    That part of an organization deemed wasteful.

    We need to trim the fat in this company

  5. 5

    slangAn erection.

    I saw Daniel crack a fat.

  6. 6

    A poorly played shot where the ball is struck by the top part of the club head. (see also thin, shank, toe)

  7. 7

    The best or richest productions; the best part.

    to live on the fat of the land

  8. 8

    datedWork containing much blank, or its equivalent, and therefore profitable to the compositor.

  9. 9

    A fop or dandy.

  10. 10

    obsoleteA large tub or vessel for water, wine, or other liquids; a cistern.

  11. 11

    obsoleteA dry measure, generally equal to nine bushels.

verb

  1. 1

    archaicTo make fat; to fatten.

    kill the fatted calf

  2. 2

    archaicTo become fat; to fatten.

  3. 3

    To hit (a golf ball) with a fat shot.

noun

as FAT
  1. 1

    Acronym of file allocation table.

  2. 2

    FAT16 or FAT16B.

  3. 3

    FAT12.

  4. 4

    FAT12 or FAT16, without drawing a distinction between the two.

  5. 5

    Any of a series of genes and their equivalent proteins that are associated with cell proliferation.

  6. 6

    Initialism of full agricultural tenancy.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Fat in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchgros, gras (carrying a larger than normal amount of fat on…), épais (thick), graisse (specialized animal tissue), matière grasse (refined substance chemically resembling the…), engraisser (to make fat; to fatten)
Germandick, fett (carrying a larger than normal amount of fat on…), Fett, Schmër (specialized animal tissue)
Portuguesegordo, obeso (carrying a larger than normal amount of fat on…), grosso (thick), gordura, tecido adiposo (specialized animal tissue), graxa (refined substance chemically resembling the…)
Spanishgordo, gordinflón, gordiflón, gordinflas (carrying a larger than normal amount of fat on…), grueso (thick), pingüe (bountiful)

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 fat come from?

From Middle English fat, from Old English fǣtt (“fatted, fat”), from Proto-West Germanic *faitid (“fatted”), originally the past participle of the verb *faitijan (“to make fat”), from *fait (“fat”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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