rarity
English
editEtymology
editFrom rare + -ity, borrowed from Middle French rarité, from Latin rāritās; compare French rareté. See also rare.
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɹɛə.ɹə.ti/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɹɛɹ.ə.ti/
- (obsolete) IPA(key): /ˈɹæ.ɹɪ.tɪ/[1]
Audio (US): (file) Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -æɹɪti
Noun
editrarity (plural rarities)
- A measure of the scarcity of an object.[2]
- (chemistry, of a gas) Thinness; the property of having low density
- 1927, H. P. Lovecraft, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath:
- Only the increasing rarity bothered him, and he thought that perhaps it was this which had turned the heads of other travellers and excited those absurd tales of night-gaunts whereby they explained the loss of such climbers as fell from these perilous paths.
- A rare object.
- 2013 May-June, David Van Tassel, Lee DeHaan, “Wild Plants to the Rescue”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3:
- Plant breeding is always a numbers game. […] In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe.
Synonyms
edit- (measure of the scarcity): rareness; see also Thesaurus:rareness
- (having low density): subtlety
- (rare object): hen's tooth; see also Thesaurus:rarity
Derived terms
editRelated terms
editTranslations
editmeasure of the scarcity of an object
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rare object
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References
edit- ^ Jespersen, Otto (1909) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)[1], volumes I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 4.71, page 140.
- ^ “rarity”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Categories:
- English terms suffixed with -ity
- English terms borrowed from Middle French
- English terms derived from Middle French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
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- Rhymes:English/æɹɪti
- Rhymes:English/æɹɪti/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Chemistry
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