natty
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of natty
Explanation
Natty means current in style, both of dress and manners. A natty dresser is someone who is very stylish and has a snappy attitude. He may even be wearing a natty fedora. Natty is an adjective that comes from the 18th century. Originally it was a slang term, perhaps related to the adjective neat. These days, if you say someone “looks neat,” it might sound like they look clean, but it also can mean that they look fashionable and put together. That’s what natty means, too. Someone who is natty is wearing fashionable clothes and is generally hip.
Vocabulary lists containing natty
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "N"
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The Field Guide to the North American Teenager
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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:
The best advice for junior-level financiers, according to Tim Gunn, the natty fashion author and academic: Read the room.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026
Lee Byung-hun looks every inch one of Korea’s biggest stars, debonair in his natty, slim-fitting suit, relaxing in this glass-walled room by the pool of a West Hollywood hotel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2025
He buys a suit in “a becoming shade of green” and, though the year is 1930, a pair of spats, the natty, gaitered footwear of a 19th-century gentleman.
From New York Times ● Mar. 22, 2024
“Our mission all year was natty or bust, so we know we got to finish the job.”
From Washington Times ● Jan. 2, 2024
The ear protectors served a dual purpose, because not only did they look pretty natty, they also kept Switzer’s slick comb-over in place.
From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx
Irons, however brilliant, is a generation older than Hardy was in 1914, and Patel is taller and nattier than the more corpulent Ramanujan, who was ill at ease in Western dress.
From Nature ● Mar. 29, 2016
Two weeks ago, the Great Googa Mooga Festival descended upon Prospect Park in Brooklyn, which abuts on its left some of the borough’s nattier neighborhoods.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2012
The other rat is three feet shorter but nattier, wearing a suit and tie and clutching two big bags of money.
From New York Times ● Aug. 19, 2010
TV went to Chicago armed with better makeup artists, nattier dress and more fancy electronic gadgets than ever before.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the ring the Prince saw many beautiful horses, fine hunters, natty little ponies pulling nattier carriages, trotters of mechanical perfection, and big lithe jumpers.
From Westward with the Prince of Wales by Newton, W. Douglas (Wilfrid Douglas)
All the sweeps wore their smartest, nattiest, mostly black best, even though the September sun delivered summer temperatures.
From New York Times ● Sep. 28, 2019
I expect my elected officials to look at least as pulled-together as the nattiest customer at any given Buffalo Wild Wings.
From Slate ● Jan. 11, 2019
He became one of the House’s nattiest dressers, with a preference for pinstripe suits and polished shoes.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 30, 2018
Next day, dressed his nattiest, talking his cockiest, Mayor Walker entered the courtroom with a grin.
From Time Magazine Archive
He was the fop of the school, wore the nattiest of garments, patent-leather shoes, gold watch, bosom pin, seal ring, and was blessed with a nice little moustache.
From Pocket Island A Story of Country Life in New England by Munn, Charles Clark
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.
