oat

American  

[oht] / oʊt /

noun

• oats
  plural

1. a cereal grass, Avena sativa, cultivated for its edible seed.

2. (used with a singular or plural verb) Usually oats. the seed of this plant, used as a food for humans and animals.

3. any of several plants of the same genus, as the wild oat.

4. Archaic. a musical pipe made of an oat straw.

---

idioms

1. sow one's wild oats. wild oat.

2. feel one's oats,

   1. to feel frisky or lively.

   2. to be aware of and use one's importance or power.

oat British  

/ əʊt /

noun

1. an erect annual grass, Avena sativa, grown in temperate regions for its edible seed

2. (usually plural) the seeds or fruits of this grass

3. any of various other grasses of the genus Avena, such as the wild oat

4. poetic a flute made from an oat straw

5. informal

   1. to feel exuberant

   2. to feel self-important

6. slang to have sexual intercourse

7. to indulge in adventure or promiscuity during youth

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• oatlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• oats
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of oat

before 900; Middle English ote, Old English āte

---

Explanation

An oat is a cereal grain, the seed of a plant that grows like a tall grass in fields. Your dad might love to bake with oats. You're most likely to see the noun oat in its plural form — oats. Oats are grown for both animal feed and human consumption. If you ever eat oatmeal for breakfast, you know what an oat looks like, at least in its rolled, flake-like form. The Old English root is ate, "grain of the wild oat plant." The source of this word isn't known for sure, though it may come from the Old Norse eitill, "nodule" or "single grain."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

oat oats

The team at CR purchased samples of a variety of lunchbox foods—everything from Takis to oat bars—and tested them for several chemicals that they described as contaminants.

From Slate ● Sep. 14, 2026

Researchers examined a wide range of products commonly available to UK shoppers, including burgers, vegetarian chicken pieces, vegan sausages, and oat, almond and soy-based milks.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026

I studied the pastries while pretending not to listen: tea-infused buns knotted with candied citrus, laminated pastry layered with spiced cream cheese, craggy oat muffins dotted with boysenberry preserves.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026

I’ll get a little vanilla latte with oat milk, and I’ll stop at this stand, King’s Empanadas, because they make my favorite empanada in L.A.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

They don’t want us to buy any old oat cereal—they want us to buy Cheerios.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

Aidan Struve, a 23-year-old farmer in Woodward, Iowa, operates his family farm that produces corn, soybeans, alfalfa and oats across roughly 500 acres.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

The cream uses the traditional mix of ricotta, mascarpone and sugar but he blended in porridge, sieved it and added some ground toasted oats.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

Gina, from Zuthphen, started eating a kind of porridge using rolled oats in her student days because it was a cheap meal.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

Stir everything together and stash your oats overnight in the fridge.

From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2026

The wild oats had headed out barely six inches above the ground, as though with knowledge that if they didn’t make seed quickly they wouldn’t get to seed at all.

From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---