Meaning & use
goatee
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Meanings
nouncountable
A small beard grown only on the chin, shaped to a point or trimmed short.
Grammar: A normal countable noun: a goatee, two goatees.
Patterns
- grow a goatee
- wear a goatee
He shaved his cheeks but kept a neat goatee.
The actor grew a goatee for the villain's role.
My uncle strokes his goatee when he is thinking.
nouncountable
A chin beard that includes a mustache joined to it, forming a circle around the mouth.
Grammar: In this sense, the mustache and chin hair are linked: a full goatee.
Patterns
- a full goatee
- a trimmed goatee
Some barbers call that look a full goatee.
His gray goatee made him look older than he was.
She drew the portrait with a dark goatee around the mouth.
Word forms
| plural | goatees |
|---|
Common combinations
- grow a goatee
- He decided to grow a goatee over the winter.
- trim a goatee
- The barber trimmed his goatee and tidied his sideburns.
- gray goatee
- The professor had a gray goatee and round glasses.
- pointed goatee
- A pointed goatee gave the magician a mysterious look.
- stroke his goatee
- He stroked his goatee while he considered the offer.
Synonyms and how they differ
- beard
- Beard is the general term for facial hair on the lower face, while a goatee covers only the chin area.
- imperial
- An imperial is a thin pointed chin beard with a mustache, so it is a specific, rarer style than a goatee.
- soul patch
- A soul patch is only a small tuft under the lip, whereas a goatee covers the whole chin.
- Van Dyke
- A Van Dyke is a goatee paired with a separate mustache, so the two are not joined.
Opposites
Word family
- goateed adjective
- having a goatee
- goat noun
- the animal that gives the beard its name
Commonly confused: goatee or mustache?
goatee vs mustache
A mustache grows on the upper lip, while a goatee grows on the chin.
Practice
Tom kept his cheeks smooth and wore only a small beard on his chin, called a ___.
Choose one answer.
A goatee is a chin beard. A mustache grows above the lip, which is the tempting wrong choice.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “goatee”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.