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neat 1 (nēt)
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adj. neat·er, neat·est
1.
a. Orderly and clean; tidy: a neat office; a neat desk.
b. Habitually tidy or well-organized: was lucky to have a neat roommate.
2. Marked by ingenuity and skill; adroit: a neat turn of phrase.
3. Not diluted or mixed with other substances: neat whiskey.
4. Left after all deductions; net: neat profit.
5. Slang Wonderful; terrific: That was a neat party.
[Anglo-Norman neit, clear, pure, variant of Old French net, from Latin nitidus, elegant, gleaming, from nitēre, to shine.]
neatly adv.
neatness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 
neat 2 (nēt)
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n. pl. neat
Archaic
A cow or other domestic bovine animal.
[Middle English net, from Old English nēat.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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