as in tidy
being clean and in good order
a distinguished-looking gentleman with a kempt beard and an old-world manner
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Recent Examples of kempt
The creeping ivy of rap had crawled over their white picket fences, across their kempt green lawns, and around their Victorian homes, weakening the old walls between cultures.
—
Jonathan Rowe, SPIN, 5 June 2023
The whole place is well kempt.
—Amanda Walker, al, 15 Aug. 2020
Silence your internal neat freak A well-kempt garden is the toad’s worst enemy.
—Molly Marquand, Good Housekeeping, 16 May 2017
There was a whiff of mystery, a sense that something more was going on behind those well-kempt exteriors.
—Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 9 Feb. 2018
A well-kempt courtyard for visitors conceals the prison’s overcrowding—stuffed to nine times its capacity with up to 250 women sharing a cell.
—National Geographic, 19 Oct. 2016
Jonathan Rowe, SPIN, 5 June 2023
The whole place is well kempt.
—Amanda Walker, al, 15 Aug. 2020
Silence your internal neat freak A well-kempt garden is the toad’s worst enemy.
—Molly Marquand, Good Housekeeping, 16 May 2017
There was a whiff of mystery, a sense that something more was going on behind those well-kempt exteriors.
—Aaron Gilbreath, Longreads, 9 Feb. 2018
A well-kempt courtyard for visitors conceals the prison’s overcrowding—stuffed to nine times its capacity with up to 250 women sharing a cell.
—National Geographic, 19 Oct. 2016
Recent Examples of Synonyms for kempt
Adjective
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It’s located right next to the Sandbox in a tidy food truck but packs a big punch.—
Jeff Goudy,
Forbes.com,
10 July 2025
-
But even the tidiest isles can succumb to storms, natural or otherwise.—
Leo Barraclough,
Variety,
9 July 2025
Adjective
-
The pair both feature a bespoke red leather by Connolly trim, which matches rather well with the features of the recording space; the duo is also hand-finished in vintage walnut, inspired by the various instruments that have graced the studio throughout the decades.—
Nicole Hoey,
Robb Report,
2 July 2025
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Nissan Rogue and Nissan Pathfinder discounts range from $670 to a whopping $1,930 depending on the trim level.—
Charles Singh,
The Tennessean,
2 July 2025
Adjective
-
Draper, up 30–love against Báez, sent a forehand into the corner that was so neat in its curve, so complete in its unanswerableness, that the crowd was very briefly silenced altogether.—
Sam Knight,
New Yorker,
12 July 2025
-
It’s been really neat to have Jack there as a reflection point throughout that process.—
Seth Abramovitch,
HollywoodReporter,
11 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Kempt.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/kempt. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.
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