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PlainSpell

neat

/ˈniːt/adjective, interjection, noun

neat is spelled N-E-A-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 9.8 times per million words in written English, the 7,224th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, neat means “Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in neat?

Letters4: N-E-A-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing9.8 times per million words; the 7,224th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
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 neat?

Neat appears 9.8 times per million words in written English, the 7,224th 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 neat?

  • /ˈniːt/
  • [ˈnɪi̯t]

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

What rhymes with neat?

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

Spelled with the same letters in another order: ante, etna, tane, neta, anet.

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 neat

  • neater comparative
  • neatest superlative
  • neats plural

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

What does neat mean?

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

adjective

  1. 1

    Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.

    My room is neat because I tidied it this morning.  She has very neat hair.

  2. 2

    Free from contaminants or impurities, unadulterated.

  3. 3

    At full strength, free from dilution (usually with water), undiluted

  4. 4

    Neither straight up nor on the rocks

    I like my whisky neat, so you have no need for ice at all.

  5. 5

    Conditions with a liquid reagent or gas performed with no standard solvent or cosolvent.

    The Arbuzov reaction is performed by adding the bromide to the phosphite, neat.  The molecular beam was neat acetylene.

  6. 6

    archaicWith all deductions or allowances made; net.

  7. 7

    Having a simple elegance or style; clean, trim, tidy, tasteful.

    The front room was neat and carefully arranged for the guests.

  8. 8

    Well-executed or delivered; clever, skillful, precise.

    Having the two protagonists meet in the last act was a particularly neat touch.

interjection

  1. 1

    Used to signify a job well done.

  2. 2

    Used to signify approval.

noun

  1. 1

    informalAn artificial intelligence researcher who believes that solutions should be elegant, clear and provably correct. Compare scruffy.

  2. 2

    archaicA bull or cow.

  3. 3

    archaicCattle collectively.

noun

as NEAT
  1. 1

    Acronym of neuroevolution of augmenting topologies, a genetic algorithm for the generation of evolving artificial neural networks.

  2. 2

    Acronym of non-exercise activity thermogenesis.

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

Neat in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germanpur, unverdünnt, unvermischt (undiluted, particularly of alcoholic drinks), rein, lösungsmittelfrei (chemistry: with no solvent or cosolvent), nett (having a simple elegance or style; clean, trim…)
Portuguesecowboy, caubói (undiluted, particularly of alcoholic drinks), leve (having a simple elegance or style; clean, trim…), bovino (cow, bovine)
Spanishderecho (undiluted, particularly of alcoholic drinks), bovino, res (cow, bovine), paja (colloquial: good, excellent, desirable)
Frenchpur, pure (chemistry: with no solvent or cosolvent), élégant (having a simple elegance or style; clean, trim…), bétail (cow, bovine)

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 neat come from?

From Middle English nete, net, nette, from Anglo-Norman neit (“good, desirable, clean”), a variant of Old French net, nette (“clean, clear, pure”), from Latin nitidus (“gleaming”), derived from nitēre (“to shine”). Doublet of net and nitid. Cognate with German nett (“nice, kind”). Compare also nait.

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

What to look up after neat