Fatter

How to spell fatter

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fatter

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fatter mean?

1. adjectiveHaving more body fat or greater thickness than something else being compared.

Fatter in a sentence

• The new sofa cushions are much fatter than the old ones.

• He grew noticeably fatter after a year of desk work.

Where does fatter come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the comparative form of the adjective 'fat', which descends from the Old English fǣtt, meaning 'fattened' or 'plump'. That word was originally the past participle of an older verb meaning 'to cram' or 'to fatten up', so a fat animal was literally one that had been fed and filled out. The same Germanic root produced related words in Dutch (vet) and German (fett), all carrying the sense of richness or grease. The comparative was formed in the ordinary English way, by adding the suffix '-er', and because 'fat' ends in a single vowel followed by a single consonant, that final t is doubled before the ending. This doubling rule, which also gives us 'flatter' and 'hotter', is the small spelling trap here: the t must appear twice.

How the word is built

• fat (Old English fǣtt: plump)
• doubled t
• -er (comparative suffix)