Rare or rear?
rare is an adjective meaning “Very uncommon; scarce”; rear is a verb meaning “To bring up to maturity, as offspring; to educate; to instruct; to foster”. Use rare as an adjective and rear as a verb (rear is also an adjective: “Being behind, or in the hindmost part; hindmost”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) rare is about 2.2 times as common as rear.
What is the difference between rare and rear?
| rare | rear | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | verb, adjective, adverb, noun |
| Meaning | Very uncommon; scarce Small in number (but not unusual); infrequent; sparse A scarce or uncommon item | To bring up to maturity, as offspring; to educate; to instruct; to foster To breed and raise Being behind, or in the hindmost part; hindmost |
| Example | Black pearls are very rare and therefore very valuable | The family has been rearing cattle for 200 years |
| Forms | rarer, rarest | rears, rearing, reared |
| Pronunciation | /ɹɛə/ /ɹɛː/ /ɹɛɚ/ | /ˈɹɪə/ [ˈɹʷɪə̯] /ˈɹɪː/ |
| In writing | 59 times per million words | 27 times per million words |
Sources: rare and rear 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 rare and rear
rare
- 1
Very uncommon; scarce
Black pearls are very rare and therefore very valuable
- 2
A scarce or uncommon item
- 3
Particularly of meat, especially beefsteak: cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red
- 4
USTo rear, rise up, start backwards
- 5
Small in number (but not unusual); infrequent; sparse
- 6
USTo rear, bring up, raise
- 7
Thin; of low density
- 8
UKslangGood; enjoyable
Sees her reflection in a butcher shop. She finds it all quite rare That her meat's all vanity fair
rear
- 1
To bring up to maturity, as offspring; to educate; to instruct; to foster
- 2
Being behind, or in the hindmost part; hindmost
the rear rank of a company
- 3
UKearly; soon
- 4
The back or hindmost part; that which is behind, or last in order
- 5
To place in the rear; to secure the rear of
- 6
To move; stir
- 7
(of eggs) Underdone; nearly raw
- 8
To breed and raise
The family has been rearing cattle for 200 years
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, rare or rear?
rare appears 59 times per million words; rear 27 times per million words.
rare 59 times per million wordsrear 27 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).