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# neat

«neat» in Mova's school dictionary: **Tidy and in good order: «a neat bedroom»** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (neat, neater, neatest)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Tidy and in good order: «a neat bedroom». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#m1)

2) Done carefully and clearly: «neat handwriting». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#m2)

3) (informal, especially US) Very good, cool: «That's a neat trick!» [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#m3)

4) Clever and simple: «a neat solution». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#m4)

5) (of a drink) With no water or ice added. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In school: «neat handwriting», «keep your work neat», «a neat drawing»; neat work is easier to read and check, especially in maths with numbers lined up in columns. In everyday life: «keep your room neat». Phrases: «neat and tidy», «neat handwriting», «That's neat!».

### examples

- Keep your desk neat and tidy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#x1)
- She has very neat handwriting. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#x2)
- Line up your numbers neatly in columns. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#x3)
- Wow, that's a neat trick! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#x4)
- He folded his clothes in a neat pile. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#x5)
- Using a pattern was a neat way to solve the puzzle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#x6)
- My room is neater than my brother's. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#x7)
- Little as Geppetto’s house was, it was neat and comfortable. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/#x8)

### note

Comparative: neater, neatest. Adverb: neatly; noun: neatness. Neat in work does not mean fast; it means careful.

### In the corpora

- [Leafcutter bees wrap their rooms in neat circles cut from rose leaves.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/305-bees-beyond-the-hive-bumblebees-solitary-bees-carpenter-bees-and-stingless-bees/4/)
- [At Mezhyrich in Ukraine, about 15,000 years ago, people built huts from mammoth bones, with jaws stacked in a neat zigzag.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/385-ice-age-ukraine-and-europe-cave-bears-cave-lions-the-siberian-unicorn-and-mammoth-bone-houses/15/)
- [Scientists even borrowed Kipling's title: they call a neat explanation that nobody has tested «a just-so story».](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/6/)
- [Some girls sneer «Princess Lily» because her hair is neat and her books are tidy.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/367-wimp-scaredy-cat-and-other-labels/13/)
- [Evidence that looks too neat, all done at once, can show something was faked at the last minute.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/449-stories-that-change/42/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «neat» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/N/neat/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.