DictionaryAI

ate

AYT/eɪt/
As a nounAH-tay

Noun pluralates

4 meanings of ate

Practice

  1. 1
    took foodverb
    Past tense of eat.

    The hikers ate their packed lunch beside the river.

    He ate slowly, savoring every bite of the meal.

    UsageNo helping verb before it; after have use eaten: we ate at noon, we have eaten (not incorrect: have ate).

  2. 2
    after hadverbnonstandard
    Past participle of eat. Nonstandard; the standard past participle is eaten.

    She insisted she had ate her fill and pushed the plate away.

    We realized the kids had ate the last of the bread for breakfast.

    Note

    A form with a respectable past and a reduced present. Jane Austen could write "as soon as all had ate" in Pride and Prejudice (1813). Today standard English uses eaten after have, has or had, and ate in that slot reads as dialect or casual speech, as in Quiller-Couch's Nicky-Nan, Reservist (1915): "Haven't ate all the eggs, I hope?"

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • Jane Austen wrote the quoted words in Pride and Prejudice; they occur in narration. gutenberg.org
    • Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813. commons.wikimedia.org
    • Arthur Quiller-Couch wrote Nicky-Nan, Reservist. gutenberg.org
    • Nicky-Nan, Reservist was first published in 1915. archive.org
    • The quotation occurs in Nicky-Nan, Reservist, spoken by Mr Penhaligon. gutenberg.org
  3. 3
    older sisternounPhilippinescountable
    A person's elder sister.

    Whenever I had trouble at school, my ate was the first person I told.

    Ate handled the family budget once their mother fell ill.

    UsageSay my ate; alone and capitalized it works like a name: Ate cooked dinner. More than one: ates.

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    polite titlenounPhilippines
    A respectful title or form of address used for an older woman.

    "Ate, how much for a kilo of these mangoes?" I asked the woman running the fruit stand.

    The younger vendors greeted the senior stallholder as ate every morning.

    UsageUse Ate alone or before a name: Ate, how much are the mangoes? Ate Maria runs the stall.

    Note

    Kinship stretched into courtesy: the word for an elder sister is extended to women outside the family, so that calling someone ate treats her with a younger sibling's respect.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

ate is a form of eat

eat, verb: To put food into the mouth, chew, and swallow it; to have a meal. Full entry

Forms
eateats he/she/iteating -ing formate past tenseeaten past participle
Spelling
eat → ate: irregular (no -ed)

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of ate apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–2

Probably a remodeling of eat by analogy with past forms such as spake and gave. The older pronunciation that rhymes with "bet" continues Middle English et, from Old English ǣt, going back through Proto-West Germanic *āt to Proto-Germanic *ēt.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

Meanings 3–4

Hokkien 阿姊 (á-ché, "eldest sister") is the starting point. Tagalog took it as ate, a word for an "elder sister," and English borrowed the Tagalog word.