How big is House cat?
House cat: 46 cm (1.51 ft). Measured as head-and-body length — an adult.
Source: Wikipedia — Cat
Where it sits
Among the 23 animals on this page house cat ranks 21st from the top by size. The largest in the group is blue whale at 29.9 m, which is 65× the size of house cat, while the smallest, honey bee, is 13 mm.
Next to an adult of 1.7 m it is small: the person is 3.7× bigger, so 3 of them laid end to end would reach one person's height.
In everyday distances
It fits inside a football pitch 228 times over — a pitch is about 105 m and house cat is only 46 cm.
Walking at an easy 1.4 m/s you cover 46 cm in 329 milliseconds. A jet at 900 km/h covers it in 2 milliseconds.
Next to its neighbours in size
The nearest thing larger than it in this collection is emperor penguin at 1.15 m (3.77 ft), 2.5× the size. Note the two figures are not the same measurement: for house cat it is head-and-body length, for emperor penguin it is standing height.
The nearest thing smaller is bee hummingbird at 57 mm (0.19 ft), so house cat is 8.07× as big as it. They sit in the same group.
Against fixed yardsticks
Against three fixed yardsticks — Eiffel Tower (330 m) is 717× the size of house cat; blue whale (29.9 m) is 65× the size of house cat; Earth (12,742 km) is 27,700,000× the size of house cat.
How this figure was taken
Animal sizes vary from one individual to the next, so each figure says which individual or average it describes. Heights are taken at the shoulder or standing; lengths run nose to tail tip unless stated.
How the sizes are taken. Each figure says what it measures — height, length, diameter or elevation — and for which individual or convention. Everything is drawn standing upright on one baseline so a single scale holds, including things that are long rather than tall. Values come from the linked Wikipedia article for each item.
Read the rest — common questions
How big is the house cat?
46 cm (1.51 ft), measured as head-and-body length: an adult.
Where does the house cat rank among animals?
Number 21 of 23 on this site, from blue whale at 29.9 m down to honey bee at 13 mm.
What is the next size up?
Emperor penguin, at 1.15 m, is 2.5× the size.
What is the next size down?
Bee hummingbird, at 57 mm, is 8.07× smaller.
How reliable is the figure?
It is taken from the cited Wikipedia article and states its basis (an adult). Values are rounded, and where individuals differ the figure is a representative one, so expect small differences from other sources.