Nearer
adjectiveCloser in distance, time, or relationship than something else.
How to spell nearer
6 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce nearer
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does nearer mean?
- adjectiveCloser in distance, time, or relationship than something else.
Nearer in a sentence
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The flat by the station is nearer to my office than the old one.
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As the deadline drew nearer, the team worked longer hours.
Where does nearer come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The base word 'near' began life in Old English as 'near', which was itself the comparative form of 'neah', the ancestor of the modern word 'nigh' meaning close. In other words, 'near' originally meant 'closer', a sense English later flattened so that 'near' simply meant close. Old Norse 'naer', carrying the same closeness sense, reinforced the English word during the Viking settlements. Because the old comparative meaning of 'near' had faded, speakers built a fresh comparative on top of it by adding the regular ending -er, giving us 'nearer'. The spelling keeps the 'ea' vowel pair from 'near' and simply stacks the comparative -er onto it, so the trap, if any, is remembering that single 'ea' rather than doubling letters.
How the word is built
- near (close in space or time)
- -er (comparative suffix)
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