Dear

How to spell dear

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce dear

What does dear mean?

1. adjectiveGreatly loved, cherished, or regarded with affection; also used to open a letter.
2. adjectiveCosting a lot of money; expensive (a chiefly British and informal usage).

Dear in a sentence

• She signed every letter to her dear grandmother with a small heart.

• Fresh strawberries are surprisingly dear in the winter months.

• He kept a photograph of his dear wife on his office desk.

• Petrol has grown too dear for her daily commute by car.

Where does dear come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends from the Old English deore, which carried two linked meanings at once: 'beloved' and 'costly or precious'. It traces back to a shared Germanic ancestor, the reconstructed form deurjaz, with relatives surviving in Dutch as duur and in German as teuer, both still meaning 'expensive'. That double sense is why English speakers can call a person 'dear' (cherished) and an item 'dear' (high in price) using the very same spelling; both notions flow from the idea of something held in high value. The salutation 'Dear Sir' grew naturally out of the affectionate sense from the medieval period onward. The persistent spelling trap is the homophone 'deer', the animal, which comes from an unrelated Old English word deor meaning a wild beast; only context tells the reader which one is meant.

How the word is built

• dear (from Old English deore: precious, beloved, costly), a single root word with no affixes

Words that sound like dear

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• deer: A hoofed grazing mammal, the males of many species growing antlers, often seen in woodland and parkland.