neat
1 Americanadjective
-
neater,
comparative
-
neatest
superlative
-
in a pleasingly orderly and clean condition.
a neat room.
- Antonyms:
- sloppy
-
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!
-
clever, dexterous, or apt.
She gave a neat characterization of the old woman.
- Synonyms:
- adroit
- Antonyms:
- maladroit
-
(of liquid, especially liquor) straight.
- Antonyms:
- mixed
-
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
-
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:
Al-Dabba and his sons, donning protective netted hats and wielding metal bee smokers, gently inspect the neat rows of teeming hives.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
A week later, the school’s possessions, including furniture, science equipment and athletic gear, had been organized, stacked in neat rows and put up for auction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
On Thursday, workers in rubber pants roamed the water with vacuums that sucked up the algae in neat rows.
From Slate ● Jun. 19, 2026
"I actually thought they were kind of neat – it felt futuristic," he says.
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
His room, never very neat at its best, looked like a hurricane had just passed through.
From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville
As I thinned out the garage shelves—recycling old paint, giving away a box of used electric outlets, listing plumbing supplies on Craigslist’s “free stuff” section—the shelves grew neater.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
Why is your instinct as a musician to go for something neater?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2025
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
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
Much neater than you’d expect Margo to be, but maybe her mom had just picked everything up.
From "Paper Towns" by John Green
I never thought he was the neatest person.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 13, 2022
The union drive was far from the neatest thing to roll off Chipotle’s famous burrito assembly line.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2022
Even the neatest gray flannel shift had a hunk of hairy shearling flapping down one leg.
From New York Times ● Mar. 6, 2022
“My mother kept it for Amelia. She thought it was the neatest thing. It was never about that boy she wouldn’t even name,” Twiggs said.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 2, 2022
I have the neatest handwriting in my class and get the highest marks on all my compositions.
From "The Night Diary" by Veera Hiranandani
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.
