neat
Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.
Adjective 4 meanings
Clean, tidy; free from dirt or impurities.
“My room is neat because I tidied it this morning. She has very neat hair.”
Free from contaminants or impurities, unadulterated.
Unexposed to dilutionary liquids, especially water.
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.”
Interjection 2 meanings
Used to signify a job well done.
Used to signify approval.
Noun 1 meaning
An artificial intelligence researcher who believes that solutions should be elegant, clear and provably correct. Compare scruffy.
Etymology
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.
NEAT at a glance
NEAT has 4 letters and scores 4 points in Scrabble (N 1 + E 1 + A 1 + T 1) and 5 in Words With Friends, before board bonuses. It ranks #7,137 by how often it appears in everyday English. It is valid in ENABLE, NWL2023, Collins/SOWPODS.
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