eat
/it/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: 5.13 in modern English
3
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To ingest.
Example Sentences
- "He's eating an apple."
- "Don't disturb me now. Can't you see that I'm eating?"
- "But meate commendeth vs not to God: for neither if we eate, are we the better: neither if wee eate not, are we the woꝛſe."
- "At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap orred tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs."
- "But Richmond[…]appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw[…]that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either."
- "Cully Barnaby: Are you going to eat this? or shall I just throw it away now? DCI Tom Barnaby: You sound just like your mother."
Etymology
From Middle English eten, from Old English etan (“to eat”), from Proto-West Germanic *etan, from Proto-Germanic *etaną (“to eat”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁édti, from *h₁ed- (“to eat”). Cognates Cognate with Scots ait (“to eat”), Yola ayth, eight (“to eat”), North Frisian iidj, iit, ää'e, ääre, ääse (“to eat”), Saterland Frisian iete, íete (“to eat”), West Frisian ite (“to eat”), Alemannic German asse, assu, essen, ässe, ässä (“to eat”), Bavarian eisn, essn, èssn (“to eat”), Cimbrian èssan, èzzan (“to eat”), Dutch and Low German eten (“to eat”), German essen (“to eat”), Luxembourgish iessen (“to eat”), Mòcheno èssn (“to eat”), Vilamovian aosa (“to eat”), Yiddish עסן (esn, “to eat”), Danish æde (“to eat”), Elfdalian jätå (“to eat”), Faroese eta (“to eat”), Icelandic eta, éta (“to eat”), Norwegian Bokmål ete (“to eat”), Norwegian Nynorsk eta, ete, åtå (“to eat”), Swedish äta (“to eat”), Gothic 𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (itan, “to eat”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /it/
- British English: /iːt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
eats (present, singular)
eating (participle, present)
ate (past)
et (dialectal, past)
eaten (participle, past)
etten (dialectal, participle)
ate (nonstandard, participle)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
ate (first person, past)
et (dialectal, first person)
eatest (archaic, present)