# cat

/ˈkæt/ (US) · /kˈæt/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/cat
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. pet animal

noun · CEFR A1

a small animal with fur, four legs, and a tail that people often keep as a pet.

For teachers: the domestic feline mammal, Felis catus, commonly kept as a companion animal or for catching mice.

- The cat sat on the windowsill and watched the birds in the garden.
- The domestic cat has lived alongside humans for thousands of years, valued for its predatory instincts and companionship.

### 2. wild feline

noun · CEFR B1

any large wild animal in the same family, such as a lion or tiger.

For teachers: any of various carnivorous mammals of the family Felidae, including both small and large species.

- Lions and tigers are the largest cats in the world.
- Conservationists are working to protect the habitats of big cats like leopards and jaguars from further encroachment.

### 3. jazz fan or person

noun · CEFR C1 · Slang · Informal

a person, especially someone who likes jazz music.

For teachers: a person, particularly a man; historically associated with jazz subculture and beatnik slang.

- He was a cool cat who knew everything about the local jazz scene.
- The club was filled with hip cats who spent the entire night discussing the nuances of bebop.

### 5. boat

noun · CEFR C1 · Informal

a short way of saying catamaran, which is a boat with two hulls.

For teachers: A shortened form of catamaran, referring to a multi-hulled watercraft with two parallel hulls of equal size.

- We spent the weekend sailing a small cat around the bay.
- The racing cat proved much faster than the traditional monohulls during the regatta's opening leg.

### 6. computing command

verb · CEFR C1 · Technical

to show the contents of a computer file on the screen.

For teachers: To use the Unix 'cat' utility to concatenate and display the contents of files.

- You can cat the log file to see the latest errors.
- The developer decided to cat the configuration files into a single output for easier debugging.

### 7. terrible

adjective · CEFR C2 · Dialect · Informal · British English

very bad or terrible.

For teachers: Used to describe something of very poor quality or a disastrous situation.

- The weather was absolutely cat during our holiday in the west.
- The traffic on the motorway was cat, causing us to miss the start of the performance.

Teaching tip: This usage is specific to Hiberno-English (Ireland) and is rarely understood outside of that region.

## Examples

- My cat likes to sleep on the sofa.
- The black cat sat on the fence, watching the birds in the garden.
- Ancient Egyptians revered the cat not only for its elegance and poise but also for its practical ability to protect grain stores from rodents.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.