What does rare mean?

Definitions for rare
rɛərrare

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word rare.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. rareadjective

    not widely known; especially valued for its uncommonness

    "a rare word"; "rare books"

  2. rareadjective

    recurring only at long intervals

    "a rare appearance"; "total eclipses are rare events"

  3. rareadjective

    not widely distributed

    "rare herbs"; "rare patches of green in the desert"

  4. rare, rarefied, rarifiedadjective

    having low density

    "rare gasses"; "lightheaded from the rarefied mountain air"

  5. rare, uncommonadjective

    marked by an uncommon quality; especially superlative or extreme of its kind

    "what is so rare as a day in June"-J.R.Lowell; "a rare skill"; "an uncommon sense of humor"; "she was kind to an uncommon degree"

  6. rareadjective

    (of meat) cooked a short time; still red inside

    "rare roast beef"

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. RAREadjective

    Etymology: rarus, Lat. rare, Fr. in all the senses but the last.

    Live to be the shew, and gaze o’ th’ time;
    We’ll have you, as our rarer monsters are,
    Painted upon a pole. William Shakespeare.

    This jealousy
    Is for a precious creature; as she’s rare,
    Must it be great; and as his person’s mighty,
    Must it be violent. William Shakespeare, Winter’s Tale.

    On which was wrought the gods and giants fight,
    Rare work, all fill’d with terror and delight. Abraham Cowley.

    Above the rest I judge one beauty rare. Dryden.

    The cattle in the fields and meadows green
    Those rare and solitary, these in flocks
    Pasturing at once, and in broad herds upsprung. John Milton.

    They are of so tender and weak a nature, as they affect only such a rare and attenuate substance, as the spirit of living creatures. Francis Bacon, Natural History.

    So eagerly the fiend
    O’er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
    With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way. John Milton.

    The dense and bright light of the circle will obscure the rare and weak light of these dark colours round about it, and render them almost insensible. Isaac Newton, Opticks.

    Bodies are much more rare and porous than is commonly believed: water is nineteen times lighter, and by consequence nineteen times rarer than gold, and gold is so rare, as very readily, and without the least opposition, to transmit the magnetick effluvia, and easily to admit quicksilver into its pores, and to let water pass through it. Isaac Newton, Opticks.

    New-laid eggs, with Baucis’ busy care,
    Turn’d by a gentle fire, and roasted rare. Dryden.

Wikipedia

  1. Rare

    Rare is a song recorded by American singer and songwriter Gwen Stefani from her third studio album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like (2016). It was released on March 18, 2016, along with the rest of This Is What the Truth Feels Like by Interscope Records. The track was written by Stefani, Justin Tranter, Julia Michaels, and Greg Kurstin; Kurstin was the track's sole producer. "Rare" is an electropop and folk pop influenced song and serves as the album's closing track. Lyrically, the song discusses finding love when all hope was lost. Several media outlets speculated that "Rare" was written about Stefani's boyfriend Blake Shelton and his ex-wife Miranda Lambert. "Rare" received generally favorable reviews from music critics, some of which called the song "glamorous" and predicted that it would become a future "summer hit".

ChatGPT

  1. rare

    Rare generally refers to something that is not common or occurs infrequently. It can be used to describe a variety of things, from objects to events to traits, indicating that they are unusual, unique, or hard to find or come across.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Rareadjective

    early

  2. Rare

    nearly raw; partially cooked; not thoroughly cooked; underdone; as, rare beef or mutton

  3. Rare

    not frequent; seldom met with or occurring; unusual; as, a rare event

  4. Rare

    of an uncommon nature; unusually excellent; valuable to a degree seldom found

  5. Rare

    thinly scattered; dispersed

  6. Rare

    characterized by wide separation of parts; of loose texture; not thick or dense; thin; as, a rare atmosphere at high elevations

  7. Etymology: [Cf. Rather, Rath.]

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Rare

    rār, adj. (comp. Rā′rer; superl. Rā′rest) thin: not dense, as rarefied atmosphere: sparse: seldom met with: uncommon: excellent: especially good: extraordinary.—ns. Rāre′bit, an erroneous form of Welsh-rabbit; Rarefac′tion, act of rarefying: expansion of aëriform bodies.—adj. Rar′efiable, capable of being rarefied.—v.t. Rarefy (rar′e-fī, or rā′re-fī), to make rare, thin, or less dense: to expand a body.—v.i. to become less dense:—pa.t. and pa.p. rar′efied.adv. Rāre′ly, seldom: remarkably well.—ns. Rāre′ness, tenuity: scarcity; Rarity (rar′i-ti), state of being rare: thinness: subtilty: something valued for its scarcity: uncommonness. [Fr.,—L. rārus.]

  2. Rare

    rār, adj. underdone—of meat. [A.S. hrēr.]

Suggested Resources

  1. RARE

    What does RARE stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the RARE acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Entomology

  1. Rare

    seldom seen or found.

British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'rare' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #2186

  2. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'rare' in Written Corpus Frequency: #3842

  3. Adjectives Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'rare' in Adjectives Frequency: #274

How to pronounce rare?

How to say rare in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of rare in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of rare in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of rare in a Sentence

  1. David Scollard:

    It's a rare disease yet it pops up in every state.

  2. Daniel LaRusso:

    Cobra Kai '. being at this point in my life and understanding how rare these scenarios are where you can touch millions of people around the world with a story and a character, being negative about that is just silly.

  3. Louis-Ferdinand Céline:

    This instinctive repulsion which tradespeople inspire in men of sensitive feeling is one of the very rare consolations for being so impoverished which are given to those of us who don't sell anything to anybody.

  4. Kawhi Leonard:

    That wasnt the case Saturday. Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic were a combined 20 for 38 from the floor, 7 for 13 from 3-point range. Paul George scored 22 points for the The Clippers, who got 15 from Ivica Zubac and endured a rare off night offensively from Kawhi Leonard. The two-time NBA Finals MVP had 13 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, but shot only 4 for 17. Kawhi Leonard had scored at least 20 points in 27 of Kawhi Leonard last 28 playoff games and had at least 29 in all seven playoff games this season. We dug ourselves in a 20-point hole early.

  5. Charles Raison:

    Most people would just kill themselves, it's very, very rare for depression to cause people to kill other people. This leads me to believe there's something else going on, like a personality character flaw.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

rare#1#2682#10000

Translations for rare

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

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"rare." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/rare>.

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