Dearest

How to spell dearest

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce dearest

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does dearest mean?

1. adjectiveMost loved or most cherished; the superlative of dear.
2. nounAn affectionate name used to address a beloved person.

Dearest in a sentence

• adjective

  She signed the letter to her dearest friend with great warmth.

• noun

  She greeted her husband each morning by calling him her dearest.

• adjective

  The ring was his dearest possession, kept safe in a velvet box.

• noun

  The old letters began with the words my dearest, written in faded ink.

Where does dearest come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is the superlative form of 'dear', which comes from the Old English 'deore', meaning 'precious', 'beloved', or 'costly'. That same root carried two threads of meaning from very early on: something held in great affection and something that costs a great deal, which is why 'dear' still survives in British English to mean 'expensive'. The Germanic ancestors of the word relate to forms found across Old Frisian and Old High German, all clustering around the idea of value and worth. The superlative ending '-est' has been attached to English adjectives since the Old English period to mark the highest degree, so 'dearest' simply means 'most dear'. Over the centuries the affectionate sense came to dominate, especially as a tender form of address, and the spelling stayed close to its Old English form with the silent merging of the 'ea' that learners must simply remember.

How the word is built

• dear (beloved, precious)
• -est (superlative suffix)