dear
/dɪɹ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.77 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Example Sentences
- "The dearer the jewel, the greater the love expressed."
- "There's more depends on this than on the value. The dearest ring in Venice will I give you, And find it out by proclamation: Only for this, I pray you, pardon me."
- "This water is sold for 50 cents per ton, which is not dear under the circumstances."
- "Every summer we can rent a cottage in the Isle of Wight, if it's not too dear."
- ""Yes, children dear, wait a bit till it turns itself," she answered - she ought to have said "till I turn it"[.]"
- "So this was my future home, I thought![…]Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams."
Etymology
From Middle English dere, from Old English dēore, dīere, dīore, dȳre (“of great value or excellence, expensive, beloved”), from Proto-West Germanic *diurī, from Proto-Germanic *diurijaz (“dear, precious; expensive”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn; hot, warm”). Cognates Cognate with Yola dear (“dear”), Saterland Frisian djuur (“precious, dear, costly, expensive”), Alemannic German tüür (“expensive”), Dutch dier, duur (“expensive”), German teuer (“expensive”), Vilamovian taojer, tojer (“dear”), West Flemish diere (“expensive”), Yiddish טײַער (tayer, “expensive”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish dyr (“expensive”), Faroese dýrur (“expensive”), Icelandic dýr (“expensive”), Finnish tyyris (“expensive”), Livonian tõurõz (“dear”), Northern Sami divrras (“expensive”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dɪɹ/
- British English: /dɪə/
Usage
Inflected Forms
dearer (comparative)
more dear (comparative)
dearest (superlative)
most dear (superlative)
deere (alternative, archaic)
deare (alternative, obsolete)
dears (plural)
dears (present, singular)
dearing (participle, present)
deared (participle, past)
deared (past)