fair
/ˈfeː/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.99 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure; innocent.
adj
Light in color, pale, particularly with regard to skin tone but also referring to blond and red hair.
adj
Just.
adj
Adequate, reasonable, or decent, but not excellent.
Example Sentences
- "Monday's child is fair of face."
- "There was once a knight who wooed a fair young maid."
- "He is so fayre, withoutten les, / he semys full well to sytt on des."
- "That the ſonnes of God ſaw the daughters of men, that they were faire, and they took them wiues, of all which they choſe."
- ""It was a purely scientific research party sent out by my father's father, the Jeddak of Helium, to rechart the air currents, and to take atmospheric density tests," replied the fair prisoner, in a low, well-modulated voice."
- "And yet he was also, though many generations separated them, distant cousin to the shining eoten-main Geard, whom the god Frea Ing had seen from afar and wedded; and to Scatha, the fair daughter of the old thurse Theasa, who had claimed a husband from among the gods as weregild for her father's slaying: often, it was said, the ugliest eotens would sire the fairest maids."
Etymology
From Middle English fayr, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“appropriate, fitting, nice, suitable”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to attach, join; agreement, settlement”). Cognates Cognate with Old High German and Old Saxon fagar (“beautiful, fair”), Danish fager, favr (“fair, pretty, wonderful”), Faroese and Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌲𐍂𐍃 (fagrs, “fair, proper”), Estonian vapper (“brave, courageous”), Finnish vauras (“substantial, wealthy”); also Latin pāx (“peace; ease, quiet, rest”), Umbrian pase (“peace”), Belarusian пе́кны (pjékny, “beautiful”), Czech pěkný (“nice; pretty”), Polish piekny, piękny (“beautiful; admirable, praiseworthy”), Slovak pekný (“nice; pretty”), Sanskrit पाश॑ (pā́śa, “bond, cord, noose; nature, outer world; border, edge, selvage”). See also peace.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈfeː/
- British English: /ˈfɛə/
Usage
Inflected Forms
fairer (comparative)
fairest (superlative)
faire (alternative, obsolete)
fairs (present, singular)
fairing (participle, present)
faired (participle, past)
faired (past)
more fair (comparative)
most fair (superlative)
fairs (plural)