coat

/ˈkəʊ̯t//ˈkoʊ̯t/

coat noun: an outer garment covering the upper torso and arms.

Image: Funknendai, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

coat (countable and uncountable, plural coats)

(countable) An outer garment covering the upper torso and arms.
- It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.1906, Stanley J[ohn] Weyman, chapter I, in Chippinge Borough, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., →OCLC, page 01
- Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days.[…]Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN
(countable) A covering of material, such as paint.
- fresh coat of paint
- Fruit of all kinds, in coat / Rough or smooth rined, or bearded husk, or shell.1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
(countable) The fur or feathers covering an animal's skin.
- Near-synonym: pelt
- When the dog shed its coat, it left hair all over the furniture and the carpet.
Synonyms:

pelt
(uncountable) Canvas painted with thick tar and secured round a mast or bowsprit to prevent water running down the sides into the hold (now made of rubber or leather).
(obsolete) A petticoat.
- a child in coats1693, [John Locke], “§148”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC
The habit or vesture of an order of men, indicating the order or office; cloth.
- Men of his coat should be minding their prayers.1729, Jonathan Swift, The Grand Question Debated of Hamilton's Bawn
- She was sought by spirits of richest coat.1609, William Shakespeare, A Lover's Compaint
A coat of arms.
- Hark, countrymen! either renew the fight, / Or tear the lions out of England's coat.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
A coat card.
- Here's a trick of discarded cards of us! We were ranked with coats as long as old master lived.1656, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, Philip Massinger, The Old Law

Verb

coat (third-person singular simple present coats, present participle coating, simple past and past participle coated)

(transitive) To cover with a coating of some material.
- The frying pan was coated with a layer of non-stick material, making it easier to wash.
- Door grab handles have been coated with an anti-microbial finish.2021 January 13, “Fleet News: Final Avanti West Coast Super Voyager refurbished”, in RAIL, issue 922, page 23
(transitive) To cover like a coat.
(archaic, transitive) To clothe.

Proper noun capitalized: Coat

Coat

(alternative) Alternative spelling of Coate.

coat meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

coat in Hindi

outer garment covering the upper torso and arms: कोट koṭ

coat in Marathi

outer garment covering the upper torso and arms: कोट koṭ

coat in Urdu

outer garment covering the upper torso and arms: کوٹ koṭ

coat in Bengali

outer garment covering the upper torso and arms: কোট kōṭ

More languagesFewer languages

coat in Kannada: ಕೋಟ್, ಕೋಟು
coat in Odia: କୋଟ, କୋଟ୍
coat in Nepali: कोट
coat in Arabic: مِعْطَف miʕṭaf
coat in Malay: kot, lapisan
coat in Indonesian: mantel
coat in Thai: เสื้อนอก sʉ̂ʉa-nɔ̂ɔk, เสื้อโค้ท
coat in Vietnamese: áo bành tô, áo khoác, phết, phủ
coat in Myanmar: အင်္ကျီ angkyi, လောင်းကုတ်အင်္ကျီ laung:kut-angkyi, ကုတ် kut

Examples of coat in a sentence

On entering the house, he gave his coat to the doorman.
She put on a coat over her new pair of pajamas.
The man wearing a red coat is standing on the street.

All 40 example sentences with coat

Synonyms of coat

pelt

Forms of coat

Noun
plural	coats
alternative form (obsolete)	cote
Verb
third-person singular present	coats
present participle	coating
past participle	coated
past	coated

Past tense of coat: coated

Plural of coat: coats

Origin of coat

From Middle English cote, coate, cotte, from Old French cote, cotte (“outer garment with sleeves”), from Latin cotta (“undercoat, tunic”), from Proto-Germanic *kuttô, *kuttǭ (“cowl, woolen cloth, coat”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷewd-, *gud- (“woolen clothes”). Cognate with Old High German kozza, kozzo (“woolen coat”) (German Kotze (“coarse woolen blanket; woolen cape”)), Middle Low German kot (“coat”), Middle Dutch cote (“coat”), Ancient Greek βεῦδος (beûdos, “woman's attire”).

Phrases with coat

77 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with coat

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about coat

What does coat mean?: Coat means an outer garment covering the upper torso and arms.
What is coat in Hindi?: Coat in Hindi is कोट (koṭ). See Coat meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is coat?: Coat can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce coat?: Coat is pronounced /ˈkoʊ̯t/ (US).
What is the plural of coat?: The plural of coat is coats.

Words near coat in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: coat (page history and authors); Coat (page history and authors); coat (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); coat (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); coat (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-coat.ogg, En-uk-coat.ogg.

Cite this entry: “coat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.