Dear or deer?
dear is an adjective meaning “High in price; expensive”; deer is a noun meaning “A ruminant mammal with hooves and often antlers, of the family Cervidae, or one…”. Use dear as an adjective and deer as a noun (dear is also a noun: “A very kind, loving person”). They sound the same (/dɪə/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) dear is about 4.5 times as common as deer.
What is the difference between dear and deer?
| dear | deer | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb, adverb, interjection | noun |
| Meaning | IrelandUKHigh in price; expensive Loved; lovable A very kind, loving person | A ruminant mammal with hooves and often antlers, of the family Cervidae, or one of several similar animals from related families of the order Artiodactyla… Such a mammal that is in the family Cervidae |
| Example | The dearer the jewel, the greater the love expressed | I wrecked my car after a deer ran across the road |
| Forms | dearer, dearest | none |
| Pronunciation | /dɪə/ /dɪɹ/ | /dɪə/ /dɪɹ/ /diːɹ/ |
| In writing | 59 times per million words | 13 times per million words |
Sources: dear and deer in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of dear and deer
dear
- 1
IrelandUKHigh in price; expensive
The dearer the jewel, the greater the love expressed
- 2
A very kind, loving person
My little cousin is such a dear, always drawing me pictures
- 3
Dearly; at a high price
- 4
Indicating surprise, pity, or disapproval
Dear, dear! Whatever were they thinking?
- 5
Severe, or severely affected; sore
- 6
Loved; lovable
- 7
A beloved person
- 8
Lovely; kind
deer
- 1
A ruminant mammal with hooves and often antlers, of the family Cervidae, or one of several similar animals from related families of the order Artiodactyla, such as the musk deer or mouse deer
- 2
Such a mammal that is in the family Cervidae
- 3
One of the smaller animals of the family Cervidae, distinguished from a moose or elk
I wrecked my car after a deer ran across the road
- 4
The meat of such an animal, obtained through the process of hunting or from specialized deer farms; venison
I'd never had deer before I ate dinner with the Johanssens. In time I learned to like it; its gaminess is an acquired taste
- 5
Any animal, especially a quadrupedal mammal as opposed to a bird, fish, etc
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, dear or deer?
dear appears 59 times per million words; deer 13 times per million words.
dear 59 times per million wordsdeer 13 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search dear vs deer?
“dear vs deer” is searched about 390 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“deer vs dear”, “dear or deer”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.