natty

American  

[nat-ee] / ˈnæt i /

adjective

nattier, nattiest

1. neatly or trimly smart in dress or appearance; spruce.

   a natty white uniform.

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natty British  

/ ˈnætɪ /

adjective

1. informal smart in appearance or dress; spruce; dapper

   a natty outfit

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Other Word Forms

• nattiness
  noun
• nonnattilyness
  noun
• nonnatty
  adjective
• nattily
  adverb
• nonnattily
  adverb

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Etymology

Origin of natty

1775–85; perhaps variant of neat ¹ + -y ¹

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

natty nattier nattiest

Those vibes must have transitive properties: On a recent morning in a borrowed backyard in Santa Monica, the vibes were as impeccable as one of the actor’s famously natty red-carpet looks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

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

“Our mission all year was natty or bust, so we know we got to finish the job.”

From Washington Times ● Jan. 2, 2024

All of a sudden, an authoritative man in a fancy suit and a natty hat arrives.

From New York Times ● Jul. 21, 2023

My mother had died about eight months earlier, and my eighty-four-year-old father, in a natty seersucker suit, sat in a reserved section with the school board president, an old friend.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

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

He stood for a while in the hall, shaken with his anger; then mounted the staircase and went into his own bedroom with the satinwood furniture and nattier blue hangings.

From The Rough Road by William John Locke

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

In London, Herbert Morrison wore his red tie, and lady Laborites turned up at the House of Commons in their nattiest scarlet dresses.

From Time Magazine Archive

When men went forth to fight the foe And women took to spade and hoe, And donning smocks of nattiest styles, Worked on the land for Farmer Giles.

From A Humorous History of England by Charles Harrison

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