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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

neat.

Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈniːt/[ˈnɪi̯t]
  1. Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.

    My room is neat because I tidied it this morning.  She has very neat hair.
  2. Free from contaminants or impurities, unadulterated.

  3. Unexposed to dilutionary liquids, especially water. At full strength, free from dilution (usually with water), undiluted

    especially
  4. Unexposed to dilutionary liquids, especially water. Neither straight up nor on the rocks

    especially
    I like my whisky neat, so you have no need for ice at all.
  5. Conditions with a liquid reagent or gas performed with no standard solvent or cosolvent.

    The Arbuzov reaction is performed by adding the bromide to the phosphite, neat.  The molecular beam was neat acetylene.
  6. With all deductions or allowances made; net.

    archaic
  7. Having a simple elegance or style; clean, trim, tidy, tasteful.

    The front room was neat and carefully arranged for the guests.
  8. Well-executed or delivered; clever, skillful, precise.

    Having the two protagonists meet in the last act was a particularly neat touch.
  9. Facile; missing complexity or details in the favor of convenience or simplicity.

    Courts should not reduce this case to a neat set of legal rules.
  10. Good, excellent, desirable; interesting; cool.

    Canada · US · colloquial
    Hey, neat convertible, man.
  11. Obsolete form of net (“remaining after expenses or deductions”).

    alt-of · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English nete, net, nette, from Anglo-Norman neit (“good, desirable, clean”), a variant of Old French net, nette (“clean, clear, pure”), from Latin nitidus (“gleaming”), derived from nitēre (“to shine”). Doublet of net and nitid. Cognate with German nett (“nice, kind”). Compare also nait.

intj/ˈniːt/[ˈnɪi̯t]
  1. Used to signify a job well done.

  2. Used to signify approval.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English nete, net, nette, from Anglo-Norman neit (“good, desirable, clean”), a variant of Old French net, nette (“clean, clear, pure”), from Latin nitidus (“gleaming”), derived from nitēre (“to shine”). Doublet of net and nitid. Cognate with German nett (“nice, kind”). Compare also nait.

noun/ˈniːt/[ˈnɪi̯t]
  1. An artificial intelligence researcher who believes that solutions should be elegant, clear and provably correct. Compare scruffy.

    informal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English nete, net, nette, from Anglo-Norman neit (“good, desirable, clean”), a variant of Old French net, nette (“clean, clear, pure”), from Latin nitidus (“gleaming”), derived from nitēre (“to shine”). Doublet of net and nitid. Cognate with German nett (“nice, kind”). Compare also nait.

noun/ˈniːt/[ˈnɪi̯t]
  1. A bull or cow.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

From Middle English net, neet, from Old English nēat (“animal, beast, ox, cow, cattle”), from Proto-West Germanic *naut, from Proto-Germanic *nautą (“foredeal, profit, property, livestock”), from Proto-Indo-European *newd- (“to acquire, make use of”). Cognate with Dutch noot (“cow, cattle”, in compounds), dialectal German Noß (“livestock”), Alemannic German Nooss (“young sheep or goat”), Swedish nöt (“cattle”), Icelandic naut (“cattle, bull”) and Faroese neyt (“cattle”). More at note.

noun/ˈniːt/[ˈnɪi̯t]
  1. Cattle collectively.

    archaic · plural · plural-only
Where this word comes from

From Middle English net, neet, from Old English nēat (“animal, beast, ox, cow, cattle”), from Proto-West Germanic *naut, from Proto-Germanic *nautą (“foredeal, profit, property, livestock”), from Proto-Indo-European *newd- (“to acquire, make use of”). Cognate with Dutch noot (“cow, cattle”, in compounds), dialectal German Noß (“livestock”), Alemannic German Nooss (“young sheep or goat”), Swedish nöt (“cattle”), Icelandic naut (“cattle, bull”) and Faroese neyt (“cattle”). More at note.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.