obese
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
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” ( see also 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.
Vocabulary lists containing obese
Burning Blue
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 2
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Articles on Nutrition
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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.
As a morbidly obese young adult, I considered him one of my “big three,” along with John Candy and Chris Farley.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
According to new analysis by the King's Fund, 15% of England's adult population - those aged 16 and over - in 1993 was obese, with rates achieving a record high of 30% in 2024.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
Published in Clinical Nutrition, the study followed 99 adults who were overweight or obese.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 18, 2026
Guernsey's Healthier Weight Strategy estimated more than 57% of adults in the bailiwick are overweight or obese, while it found almost a third of Year 5 children were living with excess weight.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Ignatius had always had a poor sense of balance, and ever since his obese childhood, he had suffered a tendency to fall, trip, and stumble.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
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.
