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

Drugs like retatrutide may be most appropriate for someone who has a body mass index above 45 – above 30 is considered obese – and for whom existing drugs haven’t worked sufficiently, Dushay said. —Meg Tirrell, CNN Money, 19 Mar. 2026

It’s increasingly seen as a potential metabolic disorder, with people who are obese also at much higher risk of developing stones. —Erin Allday, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 Mar. 2026

Beyond family history, those risk enhancers include being overweight or obese, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease, as well as chronic inflammatory conditions such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis. —Elizabeth Cooney, STAT, 13 Mar. 2026

Reviewers analyzed more than two dozen studies involving nearly 2,000 participants who were categorized as overweight or obese. —Scott Lafee, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 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