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near

adjective · adverb · noun

Simple meaning

Not far distant in time or space or degree or circumstances.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

nir
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈnɪɹ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Not far distant in time or space or degree or circumstances

  2. Close in time.

  3. Close to one's interests, affection, etc.; intimate; dear.

  4. Close to anything followed or imitated; not free, loose, or rambling.

  5. Physically close.

  6. Closely connected or related.

adverb

  1. At or towards a position close in space or time.

  2. Nearly; almost.

noun

  1. The left side of a horse or of a team of horses pulling a carriage etc.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Not far distant in time or space or degree or circumstances

Used this way, near is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use near

  • “As the wedding day drew near.”adverb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

near eastnear future

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • nearestadverbInflected form

    Within the shortest distance.

  • neareradverbInflected form

    Within a shorter distance.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • nearlyadverbDerived adverb

    Slightly short of or not quite accomplished.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • near thingnounCompound term

    Something that barely avoids failure or disaster.

  • near missnounCompound term

    An accidental collision that is narrowly avoided.

  • near beernounCompound term

    Drink that resembles beer but with less than 1/2 percent alcohol.

  • near galenounCompound term

    Wind moving 32-38 knots.

  • near visionnounCompound term

    Vision for objects 2 feet or closer to the viewer.

  • near eastnounCompound term

    The area around the eastern Mediterranean.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: at or towards a position close in space

aboutjust about

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.