rare
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹɛ/
ipa: /ɹɛə(ɹ)/
ipa: [ɹɜɹ]
ipa: /ɹɛɚ/
ipa: /ɹɛɹ/
ipa: /ɹeː/
note: without the cheer–chair merger
ipa: /ɹeə/
note: New Zealand, cheer–chair merger
ipa: /ɹiə/
ipa: /ɹeɹ/
note: Lancashire, fair–fur merger
ipa: /ɹɜː(ɹ)/
rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
homophone: rear (cheer–chair merger)
Forms: form: rarer
form: rarest
Etymology: From Middle English rare, from Old French rare, rere (“rare, uncommon”), from Latin rārus (“loose, spaced apart, thin, infrequent”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (“friable, thin”). Replaced native Middle English gesen (“rare, scarce”) (from Old English gǣsne), Middle English seld (“rare, uncommon”) (from Old English selden), and Middle English seldscene (“rare, rarely seen, infrequent”) (from Old English seldsēne).
Senses: examples: text: Black pearls are very rare and therefore very valuable.
text: Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]The wild species we use are rich in genetic variation, and individual plants are highly heterozygous and do not breed true. In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better.
ref: 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
text: While many material components in Andromeda are familiar, we have also discovered rarer and more valuable materials; attributable to exposure to the Scourge, or mysterious alien technology.
ref: 2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Technology: Augmentations Codex entry:
synonyms: scarce
selcouth
seld
selly
geason
uncommon
antonyms: word: common
word: frequent
word: abnormal
word: atypical
word: exceptional
word: exotic
word: uncommon
word: endangered
word: extraordinary
word: rare
word: strange
word: unconventional
word: unique
word: unusual
glosses: Very uncommon; scarce.
examples: text: The anterior and posterior skin of the upper chest and shoulders demonstrated irregularly jagged borders with areas of soot and charring focally. The soft and bony tissues underlying the borders were markedly damaged by presumed explosive injuries. There were rare abrasions and contusions of the chest and upper extremities. The lower extremities demonstrated rare abrasions and contusions as well as severe lacerations of the anteromedial knees with underlying fractures of the distal aspects of the femora (Image 4).
ref: 2016 March, Amanda M McLemore et al., “Suicide by Bomb, with Decapitation”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
text: Moreover, the SF [Superficial fascia] splits to surround vessels and nerves, ensuring their patency, and forms the so-called retinacula cutis, which has the function of connecting the SF to the skin (retinacula cutis superficialis, or skin ligaments) and to the deep fascia (retinacula cutis profundis), to provide a dynamic and flexible anchor of the skin to underlying tissues [16,20]. The deep septa are rare, thin, and oblique and have an apparent lesser organization, allowing great autonomy between superficial and deep fascia.
ref: 2025 January-February, Caterina Fede et al., “The Human Superficial Fascia: A Narrative Review”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
topics: medicine
pathology
sciences
glosses: Small in number (but not unusual); infrequent; sparse.
glosses: Thin; of low density.
raw_tags: of a gas
examples: text: Sees her reflection in a butcher shop.
She finds it all quite rare
That her meat's all vanity fair.
ref: 1981, Chris Difford (lyrics), Glenn Tilbrook (vocal), "Vanity Fair" (song)
glosses: Good; enjoyable.
Synonyms: word: dearthy
word: few and far between
word: geason
word: infrequent
word: in short supply
word: rare
word: raresome
word: scant
word: scantling
word: scarce
word: selcouth
word: seld
word: seldom
word: selly
word: superrare
word: uncommon
word: unfrequent
Derived terms: in rare form
on rare form
rare animal
rare as a four-leaf clover
rare as hen's teeth
rare as rocking horse shit
rare bird
rare earth
rare-earth element
rare earth element
rare earth magnet
rare earth metal
rare earth mineral
rare gas
rare groove
rare spring-sedge
vanishingly rare
Related terms: word: rarity
word: rarefy
word: rareness
word: For the adverb (e.g. rarely) see Thesaurus:occasionally
word: strange
word: unique
word: frequency