mat
/mæt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.84 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A flat piece of coarse material used for wiping one’s feet, or as a decorative or protective floor covering.
noun
A small flat piece of material used to protect a surface from anything hot or rough; a coaster.
noun
Example Sentences
- "Wipe your feet on the mat before coming in."
- "They put mats on the table during mealtimes."
- "The high jumper cleared the bar and landed safely on the mat."
- "a mat of weeds"
- "But to return to where we left her, I see her still, propped up in a kind of stupor against one of the walls in which this wretched edifice abounds, her long grey greasy hair framing in its cowl of scrofulous mats a face where pallor, languor, hunger, acne, recent dirt, immemorial chagrin and surplus hair seemed to dispute the mastery."
- "and now only a sord of Mallards drifted through the dense mats of New Zealand pigmyweed that coated the surface of the water."
Etymology
Etymology tree Old English meatte Middle English matte English mat Inherited from Middle English matte (“mat”), from Old English meatte (“mat”), from Late Latin matta (“mat made of rushes”), from Punic or Phoenician (compare Hebrew מיטה \ מִטָּה (mitá, “bed, couch”)). Cognate with German Matte (“mat”), Danish måtte (“mat”), Faroese and Icelandic motta (“rug, mat”), Norwegian matte (“mat, rug”), Swedish matta (“carpet, rug, mat”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /mæt/
- British English: /mæt/