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neat

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

neet
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈnit

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.

adjective

  1. Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.

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

  3. Free from contaminants; unadulterated, undiluted. Particularly of liquor and cocktails; see usage below.

  4. Well-executed or delivered; clever, skillful, precise.

  5. Facile; missing complexity or details in the favor of convenience or simplicity.

  6. canadauscolloquial

    Good, excellent, desirable; interesting; cool.

noun

  1. informal

    An artificial intelligence researcher who believes that solutions should be elegant, clear and provably correct. Compare scruffy.

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.

Used this way, neat is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

neat appearanceneat cattleneat cementneat pileneat rowneat trickneat hand

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • neatlyadverbDerived adverb

    With neatness.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • whiskey neatnounCompound term

    A drink consisting of whiskey without a mixer.

  • whisky neatnounCompound term

    A drink consisting of whiskey without a mixer.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

adjective

Sense: clean or tidy

clean

noun

Sense: artificial intelligence researcher who believes that solutions should be elegant

elegantswellDated

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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.