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mat

/mæt/noun, verb, adjective

mat is spelled M-A-T: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 6.9 times per million words in written English, the 9,045th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Mat, the name). People search “mat vs matt” about 390 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, mat means “A flat piece of coarse material used for wiping one’s feet, or as a decorative or protective floor covering” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of mat is mats.

How many letters and syllables are in mat?

Letters3: M-A-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing6.9 times per million words; the 9,045th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people 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); 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 mat?

Mat appears 6.9 times per million words in written English, the 9,045th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Mat, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce mat?

  • UK /mæt/
  • US /mæt/
  • US [mæʔ(t̚)]

Mat 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-mat.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with mat

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

mat vs matt390 G
mat vs matte0 B

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

Also written: matt, matte.

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

What rhymes with mat?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as mat from its last stressed vowel (/æt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: atm, tam, amt.

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 mat

  • mats plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • matting participle, present
  • matted participle, past
  • matt

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

What does mat mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A flat piece of coarse material used for wiping one’s feet, or as a decorative or protective floor covering.

    Wipe your feet on the mat before coming in.

  2. 2

    A small flat piece of material used to protect a surface from anything hot or rough; a coaster.

    They put mats on the table during mealtimes.

  3. 3

    A floor pad to protect athletes.

    The high jumper cleared the bar and landed safely on the mat.

  4. 4

    A thickly tangled mess.

    a mat of weeds

  5. 5

    A thin layer of woven, non-woven, or knitted fiber that serves as reinforcement to a material.

  6. 6

    A thin surface layer; superficial cover.

    Iceland moss growing in a mat

  7. 7

    An alloy of copper, tin, iron, etc.; white metal.

  8. 8

    Alternative form of matte (“instrument for producing a dull, lustreless surface”).

  9. 9

    Vulgar, obscene, or profane language in Russian and some other Slavic language communities.

  10. 10

    slangClipping of material.

    I used up all my mats cranking 90s and ended up getting one-pumped.

  11. 11

    datedslangAbbreviation of matinee (“performance at a theater”).

  12. 12

    Alternative spelling of matte (“decorative border around a picture”).

    the mat of a daguerreotype

  13. 13

    Clipping of matrix.

verb

  1. 1

    To cover, protect or decorate with mats.

  2. 2

    To form a thick, tangled mess; to interweave into, or like, a mat; to entangle.

  3. 3

    Alternative form of matte (“to produce a dull, lustreless surface on metal”).

noun

as MAT
  1. 1

    Initialism of medication-assisted treatment.

  2. 2

    Initialism of Master of Arts in Teaching.

adjective

  1. 1

    Alternative form of matte (“not reflecting light”).

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

Mat in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpaillasson, tapis, carpette, natte (foot wiping device or floor covering), épais fouillis (thickly tangled mess)
GermanMatte (foot wiping device or floor covering), Unterlage (protector), mit Matten auslegen (cover, protect, decorate with mats), verfilzen (form a thick tangled mess)
Portuguesecapacho, esteira (foot wiping device or floor covering)
Spanishalfombrilla, felpudo, limpiabarros, felpo, choapino (foot wiping device or floor covering), salvamanteles (protector)

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 mat come from?

Inherited from Middle English matte (“mat”), from Old English meatte (“mat”), from Late Latin matta (“mat made of rushes”), from Punic or Phoenician (compare Hebrew מיטה \ מִטָּה (mitá, “bed, couch”)).

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

What to look up after mat