kempt
/kɛm(p)t/
kempt adjective: of a person's beard or hair: combed. Also the simple past and past participle of kemb.
Adjective
kempt (comparative more kempt, superlative most kempt)
- Of a person's beard or hair: combed.
- Faint and in pain he propped his weary head, / And his kempt beard adown his bosom spread.1867, Virgil, “Book X”, in John Benson Rose, transl., The Æneis of Virgil, London: Dorrell & Son, […], →OCLC, page 307, lines 909–910
- For a moment Boshy thought his senses were playing up with him, for there in the door entrance stood the identical girl—the same turkey-egg complexion, stubby nose, and her red hair only changed from unkempt to kempt.1907, Barbara Baynton, “Human Toll: Chapter 6”, in Sally Krimmer, Alan Lawson, editors, Barbara Baynton: Bush Studies, Other Stories, Human Toll, Verse Essays and Letters (Portable Australian...
- Antonyms:
- unkempt
- Of wool or other fibres: combed.
- [W]hen maidens vvere to be vvedded, there attended upon them a diſtaffe, dreſſed and trimmed vvith kembed vvooll, as alſo a ſpindle and yearne upon it.1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book VIII.] Divers Kinds of Wooll and Clothes.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall...
- Antonyms:
- unkempt
- Neat and tidy.
- The street paving was badly worn, but looked marvelously smooth and kempt to Winterbourne, accustomed to roads worn into deep ruts and reft with shell-holes.1929 July, Richard Aldington, chapter XII, in Death of a Hero […], New York, N.Y.: Covici-Friede, published October 1929, →OCLC, part 3 (Adagio), page 359
- He could see her now: middle-aged, gray hair, well kempt, European-looking.1982, Michael Blodgett, “Meadowbrook”, in Captain Blood, New York, N.Y.: Harmony Books, →ISBN, part III, page 288
- Synonyms:
- well-groomed, all Sir Garnet, Bristol fashion and shipshape, in order, neat, neat and tidy, neat as a new pin, neat as a pin, nice as ninepence, orderly
- Antonyms:
- ill-kempt, unkempt, chaotic, cluttered, disorderly, messy, ree-raw, riotous, sluttish, tempestuous
Also used as
kempt is also the simple past and past participle of kemb.
Synonyms of kempt
- well-groomed
- in order
- neat
- neat and tidy
- neat as a new pin
- neat as a pin
- nice as ninepence
- orderly
- regular
- ruly
14 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of kempt
| comparative | more kempt |
|---|---|
| superlative | most kempt |
Origin of kempt
Partly from both of the following: * An adjective use of kempt, the past participle of kemb (“(obsolete except UK, dialectal) to comb”), from Middle English kemben (“to comb (oneself or someone, or something); to card (wool, etc.); to make (something) elegant or smooth; (figurative) to make (something) gentle”) (compare the past participle forms kempde, kempte), from Old English cemban (“to comb”) from Proto-West Germanic *kambijan (“to comb, kemb”), from Proto-Germanic *kambijaną (“to comb, kemb”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“tooth; row of teeth”), from *ǵembʰ- (“to bite, chomp; to crunch”). * A back-formation from unkempt.
From kemb + -t (suffix forming the past tense and/or past participle forms of verbs).
Words formed from kempt
Words that rhyme with kempt
Questions about kempt
- What does kempt mean?
- Kempt means of a person's beard or hair: combed.
- What part of speech is kempt?
- Kempt is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce kempt?
- Kempt is pronounced /kɛm(p)t/ (UK).
Words near kempt in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: kempt (page history and authors). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-kempt.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-kempt.wav.
Cite this entry: “kempt.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kempt. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.