Word.ws English Dictionary

matted

matted is the simple past and past participle of mat.

matted is the simple past and past participle of matt.

matted is the simple past and past participle of matte.

Adjective

matted (comparative more matted, superlative most matted)

  1. Forming a thick tangled mess.
    • The moon had spread over everything a thin layer of silver—over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall of matted vegetation standing higher than the wall of a temple […]1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I
    • As the warrior emerged from the forest, Tarzan caught a fleeting glimpse of a tawny hide worming its way through the matted jungle grasses in his wake—it was Numa, the lion. He, too, was stalking the black man.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantyine Books, published 1963, page 123
  2. Covered with mats or matting.
    • The servant led us down a matted passage and showed us at the end into a great library […]1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC

Meaning of mat

Verb

mat (third-person singular simple present mats, present participle matting, simple past and past participle matted)

  1. (transitive) To cover, protect or decorate with mats.
    • Be careful now to keep the Doors and Windows of your Conservatories well matted1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], “Kalendarium Hortense: Or, The Gard’ners Almanac; […] ”, in Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […]...
  2. (intransitive) To form a thick, tangled mess; to interweave into, or like, a mat; to entangle.
    • And o'er his eyebrows hung his matted hair.1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

See all 12 meanings of mat

Meaning of matte

Verb

matte (third-person singular simple present mattes, present participle matting, simple past and past participle matted)

  1. (transitive) To produce a dull, lustreless surface on (metal).

See all 6 meanings of matte

Forms of matted

comparativemore matted
superlativemost matted

Words formed from matted

Questions about matted

What does matted mean?
Matted means forming a thick tangled mess.
What is matted the simple past and past participle of?
Matted is the simple past and past participle of mat.
What part of speech is matted?
Matted is an adjective.

Words near matted in the dictionary

  1. Mattatron
  2. Mattawa
  3. mattboard
  4. mattboards
  5. matte
  6. matted
  7. matted glass
  8. mattedly
  9. mattedness
  10. Mattei
  11. Matteis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: matted (page history and authors); mat (page history and authors); matte (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.

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