Meaning & use
fattening
Last updated
Meaning
adjectivecomparable
Making you gain weight or become fat.
Grammar: Can be used with 'more' and 'most' for comparisons, e.g., 'more fattening'.
Patterns
- fattening food
- be fattening
- something is fattening
Cake and ice cream are very fattening.
I try to avoid fattening snacks before dinner.
The sauce is delicious but quite fattening.
Word forms
| comparative | more fattening |
|---|---|
| superlative | most fattening |
Common combinations
- fattening food
- Fast food is often considered fattening food.
- very fattening
- That dessert looks very fattening.
- less fattening
- She chose a less fattening option for lunch.
- fattening diet
- A fattening diet can lead to health problems.
Synonyms and how they differ
- rich
- Describes food with a lot of fat or sugar, but 'rich' can also mean flavorful or expensive; 'fattening' focuses on weight gain.
- calorie-dense
- A more technical term meaning high in calories; 'fattening' is more everyday and implies weight gain.
Opposites
Word family
- fatten verb
- To make or become fat, e.g., 'Farmers fatten pigs.'
- fat adjective
- Having a lot of flesh; also a noun meaning the substance.
- fatness noun
- The state of being fat.
Commonly confused: fattening or fatting?
fattening vs fatting
Not a standard English word; the correct form is 'fattening'.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'fattening' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Option 1 correctly uses 'fattening' as an adjective describing food that makes you gain weight. Option 0 uses 'fattening' as a verb (present participle), which is also correct but not the adjective sense tested here. Option 2 is nonsensical, and option 3 is awkward and not standard.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fattening”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.