goat
/ɡəʊt/noun, verb
goat is spelled G-O-A-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 6,884th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, goat means “Any ruminant of the genus Capra” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of goat is goats.
How many letters and syllables are in goat?
| Letters | 4: G-O-A-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 10 times per million words; the 6,884th 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 goat?
Goat appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 6,884th 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 goat?
- UK /ɡəʊt/
- /ɡoːt/
- British /ɡəwt/
Goat 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-goat.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with goat
Also written: go at (one word or two).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with goat?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as goat from its last stressed vowel (/əʊt/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: toga, gato.
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 goat
- goats plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- goating participle, present
- goated participle, past
- 🐐
- 𓃵
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does goat mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any ruminant of the genus Capra.
- 2
The meat of these animals.
- 3
slangA lecherous man.
- 4
informalA scapegoat.
- 5
slangA Pontiac GTO car.
- 6
A person who is not easily understood by a speech recognition system; contrasted with sheep.
- 7
A fool, loser, or object of ridicule.
- 8
A blocker who is isolated behind the opposing team's blockers, so as to slow down the pack.
- 9
Alternative letter-case form of GOAT (“greatest of all time”).
verb
- 1
To allow goats to feed on.
- 2
To scapegoat.
- 3
To isolate (an opposing blocker) behind one's own blockers, so as to slow down the pack.
noun
- 1
slangAcronym of greatest of all time.
Messi is the GOAT of football.
- 2
UKinformalA member of the "government of all the talents" proposed by British prime minister Gordon Brown.
The best talents; of course he was a GOAT.
noun
- 1
Alternative form of GOAT.
noun
- 1
Alternative form of GOAT.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Goat in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | chèvre, bouc, bique |
| German | Ziege, Geiß, Bock, Geiss, Goaß |
| Portuguese | bode, cabra |
| Spanish | cabra, chivo , libidinoso, libidinosa |
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 goat come from?
Inherited from Middle English goot, got, gat, from Old English gāt, from Proto-West Germanic *gait, from Proto-Germanic *gaits, from a substrate language. The sense of lecherous man derives from the slang expression "horny as a goat".
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).