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PlainSpell

rat

/ɹæt/noun, verb

rat is spelled R-A-T: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,407th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, rat means “Any of the numerous members of several rodent families that usually have short limbs, a pointy snout, a long, hairless tail, and a body length…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of rat is rats or 'rats.

How many letters and syllables are in rat?

Letters3: R-A-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing15 times per million words; the 5,407th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone 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 rat?

Rat appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,407th 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 rat?

  • US /ɹæt/
  • British /ɹat/
  • /ɾat/

Rat 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-rat.ogg, En-uk-a_rat.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with rat?

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

Spelled with the same letters in another order: art, tar, tra, rta.

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 rat

  • rats plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • ratting participle, present
  • ratted participle, past
  • 'rats plural

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

What does rat mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Any of the numerous members of several rodent families that usually have short limbs, a pointy snout, a long, hairless tail, and a body length greater than about 12 cm, or 5 inches.

  2. 2

    A medium-sized rodent belonging to the genus Rattus.

  3. 3

    informalA person who is known for betrayal.

    Near-synonyms: rouge, scoundrel, snake; see also Thesaurus:villain

  4. 4

    informalAn informant or snitch.

  5. 5

    informalA scab: a worker who acts against trade union policies.

  6. 6

    slangA person who routinely spends time at a particular location.

    Our teenager has become a mall rat.

  7. 7

    A wad of shed hair used as part of a hairstyle.

  8. 8

    A roll of material used to puff out the hair, which is turned over it.

  9. 9

    A scratch or a score.

  10. 10

    A place in the sea with rapid currents and crags where a ship is likely to be torn apart in stormy weather.

  11. 11

    slangA ration.

verb

  1. 1

    To hunt or kill rats.

  2. 2

    To betray a political party, cause or principle; to betray someone, to desert a person or thing.

  3. 3

    informalTo work as a scab, going against trade union policies.

  4. 4

    USTo backcomb (hair).

  5. 5

    To inform on someone; to betray someone to the police or authorities.

    He ratted on his coworker.

  6. 6

    To scratch or score.

    He ratted a vertical line on his face with a pocket knife.

  7. 7

    obsoleterareTo tear, rip, rend.

    Ratted to shreds.

  8. 8

    Damn, drat, blast; used in oaths.

  9. 9

    To hack someone with a remote-access Trojan.

noun

as RAT
  1. 1

    Initialism of rapid antigen test.

  2. 2

    Initialism of Rapid Area Transit.

  3. 3

    Initialism of ram air turbine.

  4. 4

    Initialism of remote-access Trojan.

  5. 5

    Initialism of relevant alternatives theory.

verb

as RAT
  1. 1

    To hack someone with a remote-access Trojan.

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

Rat in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchrat, souris, surmulot, rat gris, rat d'égout, rat noir (rodent)
GermanRatte, Ratz, Ratze, Rättin, Rattenmännchen, Rattenweibchen (rodent)
Portugueseratazana, rato (rodent)
Spanishrata (rodent), chivato (traitor), villano, bribón, canalla (scoundrel or villain), delatar (to tell on someone)

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 rat come from?

From Middle English raat, rat, ratt, ratte, rotte, from Old English ræt, rætt, from Proto-West Germanic *ratt, from Proto-Germanic *rattaz, *rattō (“rat”), of uncertain origin, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d- (“to gnaw, scrape, scratch”). However, the rat may have been unknown in Northern Europe in antiquity, and the Proto-Germanic word may have referred to a different animal; see *rattaz for more. Attestation of this family of words begins in the 12th century.

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

What to look up after rat