A hat is a covering worn on the head, usually for warmth, protection, or style. Baseball caps shield your eyes from the sun during outdoor games. Winter hats keep your ears warm when it's freezing outside. A chef's tall white toque shows their profession, while a firefighter's helmet protects them from danger.

Throughout history, hats have done more than cover heads. They've shown someone's job, like a police officer's cap or a cowboy's wide-brimmed hat. They've marked special occasions: graduates wear square caps called mortarboards, and birthday party hats celebrate getting older. Some cultures and religions consider certain hats important symbols of faith or tradition.

The word appears in several expressions. When someone wears “multiple hats,” they handle several different jobs or roles, like a teacher who also coaches soccer and runs the school newspaper. To “throw your hat in the ring” means to enter a competition or announce you're running for something. And when something seems unlikely, people might say “I'll eat my hat if that happens,” meaning they're so confident it won't occur that they'd do something ridiculous if they're wrong.