dear

CEFRA1

/dɪə/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Loved or liked very much.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Expensive or costing a lot of money.

Examples

  • Dear woman, why do you involve me? Jesus replied.

  • Oh dear! I think I've lost my purse!

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /diə/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Loved; lovable.

  2. Lovely; kind.

  3. High in price; expensive.

More examples

In context

  • This book is too dear for me.

  • Such dear embrace tenderly comforts even in this dear sorrow.

  • The dearer the jewel, the greater the love expressed.

Synonyms

Quick test

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She is a blank friend of mine from our childhood days.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

From Middle English dere, from Old English dīere (“of great value or excellence, expensive, beloved”), from Proto-West Germanic *diurī, from Proto-Germanic *diurijaz (“dear, precious, expensive”). Cognate with Scots dere, deir (“of great value or worth, highly valued, precious, beloved”), Saterland Frisian djuur (“precious, dear, costly, expensive”), Dutch duur (“expensive”), German teuer (“expensive”), German Low German düür, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish dyr (“expensive”), Faroese dýrur (“expensive”), Icelandic dýr (“expensive”), Yiddish טייַער (tayer, “precious, expensive”).