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

The nearly eight-week study, published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, examined 39 overweight and obese participants between 36 and 75 years old. —Angelica Stabile, FOXNews.com, 19 Feb. 2026

Sales of its blockbuster weight loss drug doubled within months of its launch in India and became its top-selling medicine by value, underscoring the growing popularity of obesity treatments in a country projected to have the world’s second-largest obese population by 2050. —Ed Silverman, STAT, 17 Feb. 2026

In 2023, around 40% of adults were defined as obese, according to data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. —Laura Washington, Chicago Tribune, 11 Feb. 2026

When that broader lens is applied, analyses estimate that the share of Americans who qualify as obese rises from 42% to roughly 68%. —Bret Scher, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Feb. 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