neat
1 Americanadjective
-
neater,
comparative
-
neatest
superlative
-
in a pleasingly orderly and clean condition.
a neat room.
- Antonyms:
- sloppy
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habitually orderly and clean in appearance or habits.
a neat person.
-
of a simple, pleasing appearance, style, design, etc..
a neat cottage.
-
cleverly effective in character or execution: a neat solution.
a neat scheme;
a neat solution.
- Synonyms:
- wonderful, well-planned
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Slang. great; excellent; fine.
What a neat car!
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clever, dexterous, or apt.
She gave a neat characterization of the old woman.
- Synonyms:
- adroit
- Antonyms:
- maladroit
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(of liquid, especially liquor) straight.
- Antonyms:
- mixed
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Building Trades.
-
(of cement) without sand or other aggregate.
-
(of plaster) without any admixture except hair or fiber.
-
-
net.
neat profits.
adverb
noun
-
neat
plural
adjective
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clean, tidy, and orderly
-
liking or insisting on order and cleanliness; fastidious
-
smoothly or competently done; efficient
a neat job
-
pat or slick
his excuse was suspiciously neat
-
(of alcoholic drinks) without added water, lemonade, etc; undiluted
-
a less common word for net 2
neat profits
-
slang good; pleasing; admirable
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of neat1
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English net “spruce, trim, clean,” from Middle French, from Latin nitidus “shining, polished, handsome, spruce,” equivalent to nit(ēre) “to shine” + -idus adjective suffix; see -id 4
Origin of neat2
First recorded before 900; Middle English net, nete, nette, Old English nēat, cognate with Old Norse naut, Middle Dutch noot; akin to Old English nēotan “to use, possess”
Explanation
If you're neat, you're clean and tidy. A neat roommate is usually easier to live with than a sloppy one. And a neat mustache is probably better than a big bushy one. Your neat handwriting might have made you the pride of your third-grade teacher, and your neat hairstyle will pass muster with your ballet instructor (who insists on a very tidy bun on every dancer's head). You can also use the word neat to mean "great," "cool," or "super." Neat comes from the Old French net, "clear or pure," from the Latin nitidus, "gleaming." Since the 1930s, it's also meant "very good."
Vocabulary lists containing neat
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.
See Examples For:
It’s a neat trick — even when Vance does it.
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026
Perpendicular to that, there’s a lunchtime slop-bowl corridor, offering Just Salad, Dig, Cava, and Sweetgreen in one neat little row.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2026
The climate’s messy reality can collide with neat story lines about how the coming months will play out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
He is neat on the ball and unafraid to take risks - a return of 15 goals and 21 assists for Liverpool, across all competitions, showcases what he can do.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026
The way I see it, if my cooking is good and my writing is neat, I know I can join in the Maple Tree’s work when I find him.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
As I thinned out the garage shelves—recycling old paint, giving away a box of used electric outlets, listing plumbing supplies on Craigslist’s “free stuff” section—the shelves grew neater.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
Why is your instinct as a musician to go for something neater?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2025
Roger Rose, from Burton Latimer, where Kettering's ground is, is repairing a previous "chicken wire" fence with neater plastic mesh.
From BBC ● Nov. 16, 2024
He was dressed in a suit and striped tie, with his once signature curly, unkempt hair cut into a neater trim.
From Reuters ● Oct. 3, 2023
I flip through each page, watching my handwriting get smaller and neater as the years go by.
From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish
Instead it was decided one big announcement would be the neatest option.
From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026
Perhaps Honeck’s neatest trick was his ability to conjure lightness and amplitude at the same time.
From New York Times ● Apr. 14, 2024
The union drive was far from the neatest thing to roll off Chipotle’s famous burrito assembly line.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2022
“My mother kept it for Amelia. She thought it was the neatest thing. It was never about that boy she wouldn’t even name,” Twiggs said.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 2, 2022
I always wrote direct quotes from Arletta in pen in my neatest cursive.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
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.
