Far

How to spell far

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce far

What does far mean?

1. adverbAt, to, or by a great distance in space, time, or degree.
2. adjectiveSituated at a great distance; the more distant of two.

Far in a sentence

• adverb

  The office is too far to reach on foot.

• adjective

  The printer sits on the far side of the room.

• adverb

  Prices have risen far beyond what most families budgeted.

• adjective

  A cabin in the far north appealed to them for a quiet holiday.

Where does far come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word descends directly from the Old English 'feorr', meaning 'distant' or 'remote', which was used both to describe far-off places and far-off times. It traces back to a Proto-Germanic form 'ferro', a relative of words in Dutch ('ver') and German ('fern') that carry the same sense of being a long way off. Scholars connect it further back to a Proto-Indo-European root 'per', meaning 'to pass through' or 'go across', the same family that gave Greek and Latin many words about journeying and crossing. Over the centuries the spelling shrank from 'feorr' to the short, two-letter 'far', and because it is so phonetic it has stayed remarkably stable. The word has worked as both adverb and adjective for over a thousand years, and its tidy spelling almost never trips up modern writers.

How the word is built

• far (single Old English root meaning 'distant'; no prefix or suffix)