Sear or sere?
sear is an adjective meaning “Dry; withered, especially of vegetation”; sere is a noun meaning “A natural succession community of organisms in an ecosystem, especially a…”. Use sear as an adjective and sere as a noun (sear is also a noun: “A scar produced by searing”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) sear is about 3.5 times as common as sere.
What is the difference between sear and sere?
| sear | sere | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, verb, noun | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Dry; withered, especially of vegetation To char, scorch, or burn the surface of (something) with a hot instrument To wither; to dry up | A natural succession community of organisms in an ecosystem, especially a series of communities succeeding one another from a time when habitat is unoccupied… |
| Example | He likes to sear his steaks while maintaining rareness at the center | none recorded |
| Forms | searer, searest | seres |
| Pronunciation | /sɪə̯(ɹ)/ /sɪː(ɹ)/ /sɪɹ/ | /sɪə/ /sɪ(ə)ɹ/ /sɪɚ/ |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | about once in every 7 million words |
Sources: sear and sere 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 sear and sere
sear
- 1
Dry; withered, especially of vegetation
- 2
To char, scorch, or burn the surface of (something) with a hot instrument
He likes to sear his steaks while maintaining rareness at the center
- 3
A scar produced by searing
- 4
Part of a gun that retards the hammer until the trigger is pulled
- 5
To wither; to dry up
- 6
To make callous or insensible
- 7
To mark permanently, as if by burning
The events of that day were seared into her memory
sere
- 1
A natural succession community of organisms in an ecosystem, especially a series of communities succeeding one another from a time when habitat is unoccupied or disturbed to the time when a climax…
- 2
Acronym of survival, evasion, resistance, and escape (“training to prepare Western forces to survive when evading or captured”)
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, sear or sere?
sear appears about once in every 2 million words; sere about once in every 7 million words.
sear about once in every 2 million wordssere about once in every 7 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).