neat
1 Americanadjective
-
neater,
comparative
-
neatest
superlative
-
in a pleasingly orderly and clean condition.
a neat room.
- Antonyms:
- sloppy
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habitually orderly and clean in appearance or habits.
a neat person.
-
of a simple, pleasing appearance, style, design, etc..
a neat cottage.
-
cleverly effective in character or execution: a neat solution.
a neat scheme;
a neat solution.
- Synonyms:
- wonderful, well-planned
-
Slang. great; excellent; fine.
What a neat car!
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clever, dexterous, or apt.
She gave a neat characterization of the old woman.
- Synonyms:
- adroit
- Antonyms:
- maladroit
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(of liquid, especially liquor) straight.
- Antonyms:
- mixed
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Building Trades.
-
(of cement) without sand or other aggregate.
-
(of plaster) without any admixture except hair or fiber.
-
-
net.
neat profits.
adverb
noun
-
neat
plural
adjective
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clean, tidy, and orderly
-
liking or insisting on order and cleanliness; fastidious
-
smoothly or competently done; efficient
a neat job
-
pat or slick
his excuse was suspiciously neat
-
(of alcoholic drinks) without added water, lemonade, etc; undiluted
-
a less common word for net 2
neat profits
-
slang good; pleasing; admirable
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of neat1
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English net “spruce, trim, clean,” from Middle French, from Latin nitidus “shining, polished, handsome, spruce,” equivalent to nit(ēre) “to shine” + -idus adjective suffix; see -id 4
Origin of neat2
First recorded before 900; Middle English net, nete, nette, Old English nēat, cognate with Old Norse naut, Middle Dutch noot; akin to Old English nēotan “to use, possess”
Explanation
If you're neat, you're clean and tidy. A neat roommate is usually easier to live with than a sloppy one. And a neat mustache is probably better than a big bushy one. Your neat handwriting might have made you the pride of your third-grade teacher, and your neat hairstyle will pass muster with your ballet instructor (who insists on a very tidy bun on every dancer's head). You can also use the word neat to mean "great," "cool," or "super." Neat comes from the Old French net, "clear or pure," from the Latin nitidus, "gleaming." Since the 1930s, it's also meant "very good."
Vocabulary lists containing neat
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Serials have their place, but there is nothing like a neat conclusion to repay your hour’s investment.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
It’s a neat trick — even when Vance does it.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026
Perpendicular to that, there’s a lunchtime slop-bowl corridor, offering Just Salad, Dig, Cava, and Sweetgreen in one neat little row.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2026
None of this plays to the strengths of fine cognac and whiskey, which is traditionally served neat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026
The braid wasn’t perfectly neat and straight like the braids Janie did, but it wasn’t bad.
From "A Boy Called Bat" by Elana K. Arnold
I grew a little neater as I aged, especially during Covid, but was never what anyone would call fastidious.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
Roger Rose, from Burton Latimer, where Kettering's ground is, is repairing a previous "chicken wire" fence with neater plastic mesh.
From BBC ● Nov. 16, 2024
Using résumés always has kept the decision-making process neater.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 3, 2023
He was dressed in a suit and tie, with his once signature curly, unkempt hair cut into a neater trim.
From Reuters ● Oct. 3, 2023
There was a neater way to deal with potatoes, as he knew from his mother’s example, and given a sharp knife, Malcolm could have shown the good nun, but he held his peace.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
Instead it was decided one big announcement would be the neatest option.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026
Perhaps Honeck’s neatest trick was his ability to conjure lightness and amplitude at the same time.
From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2024
“Clark Griffith is about to pull the century’s neatest trick in salesmanship,” Povich wrote shortly before the contract was announced.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2023
The union drive was far from the neatest thing to roll off Chipotle’s famous burrito assembly line.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2022
Then I take a marker and print a few words across the cover in my neatest handwriting.
From "Zara’s Rules for Record-Breaking Fun" by Hena Khan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
