obese

American  

[oh-bees] / oʊˈbis /

adjective

1. very fat or overweight; corpulent.

---

obese British  

/ əʊˈbiːs /

adjective

1. excessively fat or fleshy; corpulent

---

Other Word Forms

• obesely adverb
• obeseness noun
• obesity noun
• overobese adjective
• overobesely adverb
• overobeseness noun
• superobese adjective
• unobese adjective
• unobesely adverb
• unobeseness noun

Etymology

Origin of obese

First recorded in 1645–55; from Latin obēsus, adjective use of past participle of obedere, obesse (unrecorded) “to eat away,” from ob- ob- + edere, esse “to eat” ( eat )

Explanation

Obese means excessively fat. In medical terms, it means you have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more, at which point your body's excess fat begins to threaten your health. In the last third of the 20th century and into the 21st, increasing numbers of Americans are obese, in what health professionals call "an obesity epidemic"; they attribute it to rising portion-sizes, increased consumption of processed food, the demise of family meals, and food marketing, among other factors.

Example Sentences

No. It was really interesting because there was a scene where a guy comes in who is really obese and has diverticulitis.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026

Government data released March last year shows 24 percent of women and 23 percent of men are overweight or obese in India.

From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026

This is when clinicians started to describe instances in which people who are metabolically healthy and obese as the “obesity paradox,” a concept that Russell, the physician in Rochester, describes as “bonkers.”

From MarketWatch • Mar. 18, 2026

Earlier studies have shown that children are more likely to develop obesity if their parents are obese.

From Science Daily • Mar. 8, 2026

He wonders if this is how it feels for an obese person to become thin, for a prisoner to walk free.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Related Words

• corpulent