Gatto

Italian word of the day

Pronunciation
English translation	Cat
Origin	From the Latin word cattus, “cat”

Different forms of gatto

Like most nouns in Italian, gatto has two articles (definite or indefinite articles) and two numbers (singular or plural).

Examples

Il gatto dorme sul davanzale.	The cat is sleeping on the windowsill.
La mia vicina ha sei gatti.	My neighbor has six cats.

Along with gatto, gatta, the feminine form, is also used. Generally speaking, if you happen to stumble upon a cat while taking a walk through your neighborhood you would use the masculine variant, but if you’re 100% certain the cat is a lady you can refer to her as gatta instead.

Kitten in Italian

Kitten is translated as gattino, if male, and gattina, if female. The suffixes -ino and -ina are used to make things or people smaller, so these words could be literally translated as “small cat”.

See this lesson for a full list of descriptive Italian suffixes!

Il gattino	The kitten (male)
La gattina	The kitten (female)

For example, you can say…

Abbiamo trovato un gattino abbandonato davanti casa.	We found an abandoned kitten in front of our house.
La gattina beve del latte da un piattino di ceramica.	The kitten drinks milk from a ceramic saucer.

Terms of endearment for cats in Italian

Gatto is not the only translation for cat in Italian, but it’s the most neutral. When you particularly like a cat, you can address them as micio, if male, or micia, if female, to convey affection similarly to kitty in English.

Il micio	The kitty (male)
La micia	The kitty (female)

Micio is pronounced as mee-choh.

Al mio micio piace dormire sul cofano delle macchine.	My kitty likes to sleep on the hood of cars.
Hai visto la micia? Non si fa vedere da stamattina.	Have you seen the kitty? She hasn’t shown up since this morning.

If you want to be even more affectionate, you can say micione, if your cat is a BIG one, micetto or micino if it’s particularly small and cute.

Micione, micetto, micino

Kitty

“Big cats” refers to tigers and lions in English. These are known as grandi felini in Italian, “big felines”. Gattone or micione, even if they are translated as “big cat”, are used to address our furry pets.

Body parts of a cat in Italian

Here is a list of all the specific body parts of a gatto in Italian.

I baffi, le vibrisse	The whiskers (Baffi is more common, vibrisse is the technical term)
Le zampe	The paws
Il pelo	The fur
La coda	The tail
Il muso	The snout, the muzzle
Gli artigli	The claws

Words are useless without context, so let me add an example for each of these.

È vero che i gatti si orientano grazie ai baffi?	Is it true that cats get their bearings by their whiskers?
Il gattino tiene una zampa sollevata. Come mai?	The kitten holds one paw up. How come?
Quali sono le razze di gatti a pelo lungo?	What are the breeds of long-haired cats?
Quando il gatto tiene la coda alta, significa che è felice.	When the cat holds its tail high, it means it is happy.
Questo gatto ha un muso molto dolce.	This cat has a very sweet muzzle.
Il gatto ha graffiato le tende con gli artigli!	The cat scratched the curtains with its claws!

Other kinds of gatto in Italian

A kitty cat who lives with you is a gatto domestico or gatto di casa, which is the opposite of gatto randagio, stray cat.

Il gatto domestico / Il gatto di casa	The domestic cat / The house cat
Il gatto randagio	The stray cat

Cats that are not purebred (tabby ones) are known as gatti soriani (gatto soriano in the singular), while purebred cats are called gatti di razza (or gatto di razza in the singular).

Il gatto soriano	The tabby cat
Il gatto di razza	The purebred cat

Cats can either be a pelo lungo, long-haired, or a pelo corto, short-haired.

Il gatto a pelo lungo	The long-haired cat
Il gatto a pelo corto	The short-haired cat

Popular cat breeds in Italian

Some cat breeds are more common than others, so it can be useful to know what they are called in Italian.

Gatto persiano	Persian cat
Gatto norvegese	Norwegian cat
Gatto certosino	Chartreuse cat
Gatto siamese	Siamese cat

A couple of examples…

Mi piacerebbe tanto avere un certosino!	I would love to have a Chartreuse cat!
La famiglia che vive sopra di noi ha un gatto persiano di nome Joey.	The family living above us has a Persian cat named Joey.

Behaviors of a cat in Italian

Cats are very habit-forming animals (animali abitudinari), so let’s now have a look at the most common behaviors of a cat in Italian.

If you like petting (accarezzare) your cat, they will start purring. Purring is translated into Italian as fare le fusa, “to do the purrs”.

Fare le fusa

To purr

I gatti fanno spesso le fusa quando li accarezzi.

Cats often purr when you pet them.

If you annoy them though, they can hiss (soffiare)!

Soffiare

To hiss

Quando il veterinario fa per avvicinarsi a lui, il gatto soffia.

When the vet makes to approach him, the cat hisses.

When a cat wants attention, it will meow (miagolare).

Miagolare

To meow

Il gatto miagola davanti alla porta d’ingresso.

The cat meows in front of the front door.

Cats also love to sneak into tight and cozy places. To do this, they will “turn into a donut” (acciambellarsi or raggomitolarsi). The first verb comes from the word ciambella, meaning donut, while raggomitolarsi comes from gomitolo, ball of yarn.

Acciambellarsi	To curl up
Raggomitolarsi	To curl up

Il mio gatto adora acciambellarsi nell’incavo delle mie ginocchia.

My cat loves to curl up in the crook of my knees.

Cats also devote much of their day to cleaning themselves (lavarsi).

Lavarsi

To clean themselves

Quando un gatto si lava dietro le orecchie, si dice che pioverà a breve.

When a cat cleans itself behind its ears, it is said it will be raining soon.

When they are scared, cats can “raise their fur”, rizzare il pelo, meaning to bristle.

Rizzare il pelo

To bristle

Quando vide il cane, il gattino rizzò il pelo.

When it saw the dog, the kitten bristled.

If you want to ask your vet to spay your cat, you will need to say sterilizzare.

Sterilizzare

To spay

Ho fatto sterilizzare la mia gatta due giorni fa.

I had my cat spayed two days ago.

Cat people in Italian

Cats are beloved animals by many. Cat lovers are called gattofili in Italian as a joke (gattofilo in the singular), more commonly amanti dei gatti (or amante dei gatti).

Il gattofilo	The cat lover
L’amante dei gatti	The cat lover

Then we have the gattara, cat lady, which is a pejorative term for an adult, single woman who devotes her life to taking care of stray cats or lives with many cats. (The Crazy Cat Lady in The Simpsons show is a perfect example of a gattara!)

La gattara

The cat lady

Related Words

What about cat food, cat litter? How do you say catnip in Italian? Here’s a handy list of words you can use to talk about your cat in Italian:

Erba gatta	Catnip
Cibo per gatti	Cat food (“Food for cats”)
Gattaiola	Cat flap
Lettiera	Cat litter
Trasportino	Kennel
Collare	Collar
Tiragraffi	Scratching post

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