Meaning & use
cleats
Last updated
“cleats” is a form of “cleat”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
nounplural
Sports shoes with small pieces of rubber or metal under the sole that stop you slipping.
Grammar: Always plural for the shoes: a pair of cleats, not "a cleat" for one shoe.
Patterns
- a pair of cleats
- wear cleats
- put on your cleats
He put on his cleats before running onto the field.
My cleats were still muddy from Saturday's game.
She bought new cleats for the soccer season.
nounplural
The small grips themselves on the bottom of a sports shoe.
Grammar: Plural of cleat; use the singular when talking about one grip.
Patterns
- the cleats on a shoe
- worn cleats
The cleats on his shoes had worn smooth.
Replace the cleats when they stop gripping the grass.
Word forms
| singular | cleat |
|---|
Common combinations
- a pair of cleats
- I need a new pair of cleats for baseball.
- wear cleats
- You have to wear cleats on this pitch.
- soccer cleats
- He keeps his soccer cleats in the car.
- put on your cleats
- Put on your cleats; the grass is wet.
- baseball cleats
- Baseball cleats have metal studs on the bottom.
Synonyms and how they differ
- studs
- The British word for the grips on a sports shoe, and also used for the shoes themselves.
- boots
- In British football talk, boots means the whole shoe; cleats is the American term for the same thing.
- spikes
- Shoes with long pointed grips, used in sports like track and field.
Word family
Commonly confused: cleats or clits?
cleats vs clits
A vulgar slang word that sounds similar; avoid confusing it with cleats in writing and speech.
Practice
Which sentence uses "cleats" correctly?
Choose one answer.
Cleats are sports shoes, so putting them on before a game fits. Option 1 wrongly treats one shoe as "a cleat" in this sense, option 2 confuses the word with something edible, and option 3 uses it as a verb with the wrong meaning.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cleats”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.