Definitions for rather
ˈræð ər, ˈrɑ ðərrather

Princeton's WordNet(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. rather, insteadadverb

   on the contrary

   "rather than disappoint the children, he did two quick tricks before he left"; "he didn't call; rather (or instead), he wrote her a letter"; "used English terms instead of Latin ones"

2. rather, kind of, kinda, sort ofadverb

   to some (great or small) extent

   "it was rather cold"; "the party was rather nice"; "the knife is rather dull"; "I rather regret that I cannot attend"; "He's rather good at playing the cello"; "he is kind of shy"

3. preferably, sooner, ratheradverb

   more readily or willingly

   "clean it well, preferably with warm water"; "I'd rather be in Philadelphia"; "I'd sooner die than give up"

4. quite, ratheradverb

   to a degree (not used with a negative)

   "quite tasty"; "quite soon"; "quite ill"; "quite rich"

Wiktionary(3.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. ratherverb

   To prefer; to prefer to.

   Etymology: From rather, rether, from hraþor, comparative of hraþe, equivalent to . More at rathe.

2. ratheradverb

   More quickly; sooner, earlier.

   Etymology: From rather, rether, from hraþor, comparative of hraþe, equivalent to . More at rathe.

3. ratheradverb

   Used to specify a choice or preference; preferably.

   Etymology: From rather, rether, from hraþor, comparative of hraþe, equivalent to . More at rathe.

4. ratheradverb

   Used to introduce a contradiction; on the contrary.

   Etymology: From rather, rether, from hraþor, comparative of hraþe, equivalent to . More at rathe.

5. ratheradverb

   Introducing a qualification or clarification; more precisely. (Now usually preceded by or.)

   Etymology: From rather, rether, from hraþor, comparative of hraþe, equivalent to . More at rathe.

6. ratheradverb

   Somewhat, fairly.

   Etymology: From rather, rether, from hraþor, comparative of hraþe, equivalent to . More at rathe.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Ratheradjective

   prior; earlier; former

   Etymology: [Compar. of Rath, a.]

2. Ratheradjective

   earlier; sooner; before

   Etymology: [Compar. of Rath, a.]

3. Ratheradjective

   more readily or willingly; preferably

   Etymology: [Compar. of Rath, a.]

4. Ratheradjective

   on the other hand; to the contrary of what was said or suggested; instead

   Etymology: [Compar. of Rath, a.]

5. Ratheradjective

   of two alternatives conceived of, this by preference to, or as more likely than, the other; somewhat

   Etymology: [Compar. of Rath, a.]

6. Ratheradjective

   more properly; more correctly speaking

   Etymology: [Compar. of Rath, a.]

7. Ratheradjective

   in some degree; somewhat; as, the day is rather warm; the house is rather damp

   Etymology: [Compar. of Rath, a.]

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Rather

   räth′ėr, adv. more willingly: in preference: especially: more so than otherwise: on the contrary: somewhat, in some degree: more properly: (coll.) considerably, very much.—adj. Rath′erish, to a slight degree, somewhat.—Rather better than, somewhat in excess of.—The rather, by so much the more. [A.S. hrathor, comp. of hrathe, early.]

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'rather' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #444

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'rather' in Written Corpus Frequency: #442

3. Adverbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'rather' in Adverbs Frequency: #61

How to pronounce rather?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say rather in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of rather in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of rather in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Examples of rather in a Sentence

1. Anuj Somany:

   The private company thinks merely about own profits & money, so obviously it tends to recruit and retain only the employees with the same selfish thinking rather than those who are sincere and hardworking.

2. Rob Bonta:

   It's unfortunate that some politicians would rather demonize trans youth than focus on solving real issues like tackling gun violence, beating back this pandemic, and rebuilding our economy.

3. Andy Slavitt:

   We have to remember the fact that in the next two to six weeks, the variants that we've seen in Michigan -- those variants are also present in other states, so our ability to vaccinate people quickly in each of those states, rather than taking vaccines and shifting it to playing whack-a-mole, isn't the strategy that public health leaders and scientists have laid out.

4. Severin Meiland:

   Before you were born there was billions of billions of years you didn't exist, and after you are dead there will be billions of billions of years that you wont exist. You don't remember the moment you where born, and you won't rememeber the moment you die. Life is a break between two eternies, a pause you might call it, and when you have a break or a pause, you dont want to work, live in misery, or struggle, but rather to rest, and enjoy yourself and others, and to live life easy, without worrying about what happens after, and certainly not what happened before. What matters is here and now, everything else is not worth worrying about.

5. Parker Conrad:

   I think [ADP has] always had a bit of cognitive dissonance about Zenefits. On the one hand, we don’t do payroll—we’re a sales channel for them for payroll. On the other hand, although people think of ADP as a payroll company, they make a lot of money by taking that core payroll business and upselling clients on all of this other stuff, i think what happened for ADP is that at a certain point, their view of us flipped from uncertainty to a decision that they absolutely didn’t like us. Who knows? They might decide in six months to a year, ‘Oh my gosh, this is a mistake, we’d much rather partner with Zenefits—they have a lot of customers in the market, and we don’t want to block ourselves out of all of those customers.’.

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