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rare

adjective · verb

Simple meaning

Very uncommon; scarce.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

rehr
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɹɛɹ

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. Very uncommon; scarce.

  2. cooking

    Particularly of meat, especially beefsteak: cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red.

  3. medicinepathology

    Small in number (but not unusual); infrequent; sparse.

  4. of a gas

    Thin; of low density.

  5. ukslang

    Good; enjoyable.

verb

  1. usintransitive

    To rear, rise up, start backwards.

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More ways to use rare

  • “Black pearls are very rare and therefore very valuable.”adjective

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • rarelyadverbDerived adverb

    Not often.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • rare birdnounCompound term

    A rare or unique person.

  • rare earthnounCompound term

    Any element of the lanthanide series (atomic numbers 57 through 71).

  • rare-earth elementnounCompound term

    Any element of the lanthanide series (atomic numbers 57 through 71).

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: very uncommon

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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.