rare

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From a dialectal variant of rear, from Middle English rere, from Old English hrēr, hrēre (“not thoroughly cooked, underdone, lightly boiled”), from hrēran (“to move, shake, agitate”), from Proto-Germanic *hrōzijanan (“to stir”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱera-, *ḱrā- (“to mix, stir, cook”). Related to Old English hrōr (“stirring, busy, active, strong, brave”). More at rear.

Alternative forms

reer, rere (UK)

Adjective

rare (comparative rarer or more rare, superlative rarest or most rare)

(cooking, particularly meats) Cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red (in the case of steak or beef in the general sense).
- Dryden
  New-laid eggs, which Baucis' busy care / Turned by a gentle fire, and roasted rare.

Synonyms

(cooked very lightly): sanguinary

Antonyms

(cooked very lightly): well done

Derived terms

medium-rare

Translations

cooked very lightly

Czech: krvavý (cs)
Dutch: bloedig, bloedige, saignant
French: saignant (fr)
German: blutig (de)
Hungarian: véres (hu)

Italian: al sangue (it)
Luxembourgish: bluddeg (lb)
Portuguese: mal passado (pt)
Spanish: crudo (es), poco hecho (es)

Etymology 2

From Middle English rare, from Old French rare, rere (“rare, uncommon”), from Latin rārus (“loose, spaced apart, thin, infrequent”), from Proto-Indo-European *er(e)-, *rē- (“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 seldsene ("rare, rarely seen, infrequent"; from Old Norse sialdsēnn; See seldsome).

Adjective

rare (comparative rarer, superlative rarest)

Very uncommon; scarce.
Black pearls are very rare and therefore, very valuable.
(of a gas) thin; of low density

Synonyms

(very uncommon): scarce, selcouth, seldsome, geason, uncommon

Antonyms

(very uncommon): common

Derived terms

Related terms

rarity

Translations

very uncommon

Albanian: rrallë (sq)
Arabic: نادر (ar) (nādir)
Belarusian: рэдкі (be) (rédki)
Bulgarian: рядък (bg) (rjádǎk)
Catalan: rar (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 稀少 (cmn) (xīshǎo), 稀疏 (cmn) (xīshū), 稀有 (cmn) (xīyǒu)
Czech: vzácný (cs) m, řídký (cs)
Danish: sjælden (da)
Dutch: zeldzaam (nl), zeldzame (nl)
Estonian: haruldane (et), erakordne (et)
Finnish: harvinainen (fi)
French: rare (fr), peu commun (fr)
German: selten (de), rar (de)
Greek: σπάνιος (el) (spánios)
Hindi: दुर्लभ (hi) (durlabh)
Hungarian: ritka (hu)
Italian: raro (it)
Japanese: 珍しい (ja) (めずらしい, mezurashii)
Jèrriais: rare m and f
Korean: 드문 (ko) (deumun)
Kurdish:
Sorani: نایاب

Latvian: rets (lv)
Macedonian: редок (mk) (rédok)
Norwegian: skjelden (no)
Persian: کمیاب (fa) (kamyâb), نایاب (fa) (nâyâb), شاذ (fa) (šâzz)
Polish: rzadki (pl)
Portuguese: raro (pt)
Romanian: rar (ro)
Russian: редкий (ru) (rédkij)
Sanskrit: विरल (viral)
Scottish Gaelic: gann, ainneamh (gd)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: редак (sh), риједак (sh)

Roman: redak (sh), rijedak (sh)
Slovak: riedky (sk)
Slovene: rédek (sl)
Spanish: escaso (es), raro (es)
Swedish: sällsynt (sv), rar (sv), ovanlig (sv)
Telugu: అరుదు (arudu)
Ukrainian: рідкий (uk) (rídkyj)
Vietnamese: hiếm (vi)

thin density gas

Portuguese: rarefeito (pt)

Romanian: rarefiat (ro)

Etymology 3

Variant of rear.

Verb

rare (third-person singular simple present rares, present participle raring, simple past and past participle rared)

(US, intransitive) To rear, rise up, start backwards.
- 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 328:
  Frank pretended to rare back as if bedazzled, shielding his eyes with a forearm.
(US, transitive) To rear, bring up, raise.