obese

adjective

ō-ˈbēs 

: having excessive body fat

Synonyms of obese

• plump
• fat
• overweight
• round

Examples of obese in a Sentence

providing medical treatment for obese patients

the basset hound was so obese that its stomach touched the floor

Recent Examples on the Web

There is an ongoing scientific controversy over whether obese individuals with no metabolic abnormalities, such as diabetes, high cholesterol, or hypertension, should be treated as higher risk. —Tom Chivers, semafor.com, 3 Apr. 2026

In second place, WalletHub noted that San Diego ranks tenth nationwide for healthy restaurants, has the thirteenth-lowest share of obese adults, the eleventh-largest number of weight-loss centers, the seventh-most farmers' markets per capita, and the sixth-most hiking trails per capita. —Joe Edwards, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Mar. 2026

India is a critical market, with around 100 million people living with diabetes and nearly a quarter classified as obese. —Priyanka Salve,elsa Ohlen, CNBC, 23 Mar. 2026

In the new study, researchers ran a 12-week randomized prevention trial with 114 ethnically and socioeconomically diverse parents with overweight or obese children aged two to five. —Karen Guzman, Hartford Courant, 21 Mar. 2026

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Latin obēsus "fat, stout," past participle of *obedere, perhaps meaning originally "to gnaw," from ob- "against" + edere "to eat" — more at ob-, eat entry 1

Note: Etymologically obēsus should mean "thin, emaciated," if the sense of the unattested verb *obedere was "to eat away, gnaw," as implied by its components. The Roman writer Aulus Gellius (Noctes Atticae 19.7.3) pointed this out and adduced a passage from the poet Laevius (who is known only from a handful of quotations from his works made by other authors), where the word apparently has the meaning "wasted." Presumably the word went reanalysis after the extinction of the verb. The grammarian Pompeius Festus construed the derivation phrasally as "made fat as if as a result of eating" ("pinguis quasi ob edendum factus").

First Known Use

1651, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for obese

• apiece
• aris
• assise
• caprice
• cerise
• decease
• decrease
• eyepiece
• facepiece
• handpiece
• headpiece
• increase

Kids Definition

obese

adjective

ō-ˈbēs 

: very fat

obesity

ō-ˈbē-sət-ē

noun

Medical Definition

obese

adjective

ō-ˈbēs 

: having excessive body fat : affected by obesity