oat
/ˈoʊ̯t/noun, prepositional phrase
oat is spelled O-A-T: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,798th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, oat means “Widely cultivated cereal grass, typically Avena sativa” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of oat is oats.
How many letters and syllables are in oat?
| Letters | 3: O-A-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 32,798th 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; 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 oat?
Oat appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,798th 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 oat?
- UK /ˈəʊt/
- UK /ˈɵ̞ʊt/
- US /ˈoʊ̯t/
Oat has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-oat.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with oat?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as oat from its last stressed vowel (/oʊt/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: tao, toa.
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 oat
- oats plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does oat mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Widely cultivated cereal grass, typically Avena sativa.
The oat stalks made good straw.
- 2
Any of the numerous species, varieties, or cultivars of any of several similar grain plants in genus Avena.
The wild red oat is thought to be the ancestor of modern food oats.
- 3
The seeds of the oat, a grain, harvested as a food crop and for animal feed.
- 4
A simple musical pipe made of oat-straw.
- 5
The tiniest amount; a whit or jot.
prepositional phrase
- 1
Initialism of of all time.
prepositional phrase
- 1
Alternative letter-case form of OAT.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Oat in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense widely cultivated cereal grass:
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 oat come from?
Inherited from Middle English ote, from Old English āte, from Proto-West Germanic *aitā, from Proto-Germanic *aitǭ (“swelling; gland; nodule”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyd- (“to swell”). See English atter (“poison”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).