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mate

noun · verb

Simple meaning

The partner of an animal.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

mayt
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmeɪt

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The partner of an animal (especially a sexual partner)

    “He loved the mare and all her mates.”

  2. especially of a non-human animal

    A breeding partner.

  3. A fellow, comrade, colleague, partner or someone with whom something is shared, e.g. shipmate, classmate.

  4. Informal term for a friend of the same sex

  5. (colloquial, British, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, sometimes elsewhere in the Commonwealth) A friend, usually of the same sex.

  6. especially of a non-human animal

    A person's partner in marriage

verb

  1. intransitive

    To match, fit together without space between.

  2. transitiveof an animal

    To copulate with.

  3. intransitive

    To pair in order to raise offspring.

  4. transitive

    To arrange in matched pairs.

  5. transitive

    To introduce (animals) together for the purpose of breeding.

  6. transitive

    To marry; to match (a person).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The partner of an animal (especially a sexual partner)

Used this way, mate is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in relationships contexts.

Heard in a sentence
“He loved the mare and all her mates.”
Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Relationships

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use mate

  • “He lost the mate to his shoe.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

running matefirst matesecond matesoul matechief matemate choicethird matemate selection

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • matesnounPlural form

    A pair of people who live together.

  • maternounInflected form

    An informal use of the Latin word for mother.

  • matedadjectiveInflected form

    Mated sexually.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • mater turritanounCompound term

    Great nature goddess of ancient Phrygia in Asia Minor.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.