Eater
nounA person or animal that eats, especially in a way described by a preceding word.
How to spell eater
5 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce eater
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does eater mean?
- nounA person or animal that eats, especially in a way described by a preceding word.
Eater in a sentence
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Her toddler turned into a fussy eater overnight.
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The wolf is a powerful meat eater at the top of the food chain.
Where does eater come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This is a thoroughly native English word built from the Old English verb 'etan', meaning 'to eat', combined with the agent suffix '-er' that turns a verb into the doer of the action. The verb 'etan' traces back to the Proto-Germanic root that also gave German 'essen' and Dutch 'eten', and ultimately to a very old Indo-European root meaning 'to bite' or 'to consume'. The same family of words underlies 'edible' (through Latin 'edere', a distant cousin) and the everyday 'food'. The spelling 'eater' simply joins the modern verb 'eat' to '-er', so the only mild trap is the 'ea' vowel pair and remembering not to double the final consonant or alter the stem before adding the ending.
How the word is built
- eat (consume food)
- -er (agent suffix: one who does)
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