EN

Synonyms for pet

37 synonyms
1 antonym
4 meanings

noun
verb

Most common

darling baby love sweetheart

Synonyms by meaning

Noun

1. Darling

darling, baby, babby US, love, sweetheart, sister, idol, sugar, ducky, dearie informal

Other

companion animal, emotional support animal, dolly, humor US, humour UK, touch-up, mood, huff, fondling, tiff informal, miff

Verb

1. Pat — to stroke or fondle (an animal)

pat UK AU NZ, smooth

2. Pout — to be peevish; to sulk

3. Coddle

coddle, cocker, caress, feel up, fondle, neck, fond, cosset, chuckle, grope, dandle rare, nantle rare

Antonyms

All antonyms of pet →

Definitions

n. 1
An animal kept as a companion or otherwise for pleasure, rather than for some practical benefit or use.
family pet, pet cat, pet dog, pet store
v. 1
To stroke or fondle (an animal).
I really love to pet cute puppies.
v. 2
To be peevish; to sulk.
v. 3
To stroke or fondle (another person) amorously.
We started petting each other the moment we were alone.

Related words

Word family: pettish pettable petting
Phrases: teacher's pet pet name pet regression pet hate pet peeve digital pet pet shop pet store

Forms

Plural: pets → darlings, babies, loves, sweethearts…
Past participle: petted
e.g. petted → patted, smoothed, pouted, moped…

Example sentences

sister My sister married a high school teacher last June.
ducky Ziri found a rubber ducky in the bath.
mood A celebratory mood prevails in the united Germany.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
pet		rising
sister		rising
ducky		rising
mood		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: pat¹
4 letters: love¹, baby², neck¹, mood¹, idol², fond¹, huff¹, tiff¹, pout¹, mope¹, miff
5 letters: sugar², humor², dolly², ducky², grope¹, babby
6 letters: sister², smooth¹, humour², caress², cocker², fondle², dearie, coddle², cosset², dandle, nantle
7 letters: darling², chuckle²
8 letters: fondling³
10 letters: sweetheart²

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (baby² = 2 syllables).