dear
/dɪə/
"dear" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dear” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,753. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,753
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - High in price; expensive.
Corpus desk
Index EN-dear · dear · English
dear · rank #1,753 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,753
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH copy
Nearest frequency peer: copy (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “dear”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- completed
completed
98,251 corpus weight
- concept
concept
98,250 corpus weight
- copy
copy
98,249 corpus weight
- dear
dear
98,248 corpus weight
- dogs
dogs
98,247 corpus weight
- drugs
drugs
98,246 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “dear” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dear |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /dɪə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,753 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “dear” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around dear (IPA /dɪə/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #1,753 among 3,470 “D” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for dear, with forms such as "daer", "ddear", and "dearr". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Dr", "DNA", "del", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English dere, from Old English dīere (“of great value or excellence, expensive, beloved”), from Proto-West Germanic *diurī, from Proto-Germanic *diurijaz (“dear, precious, expensive”). Cognate with Scots dere, deir (“of great value or worth, hig… The correct English form is dear, spelled D-E-A-R.
Definition
- 1High in price; expensive.
- 2Loved; lovable.
- 3Lovely; kind.
- 4Loving, affectionate, heartfelt
- 5Precious to or greatly valued by someone.
- 6A formal way to start (possibly after my) addressing somebody at the beginning of a letter, memo etc.
- 7A formal way to start (often after my) addressing somebody one likes or regards kindly.
- 8An ironic way to start (often after my) addressing an inferior or someone one dislikes.
- 9Noble.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how dear appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The dearer the jewel, the greater the love expressed.
There's more depends on this than on the value. The dearest ring in Venice will I give you, And find it out by proclamation: Only for this, I pray you, pardon me.
Etymology
From Middle English dere, from Old English dīere (“of great value or excellence, expensive, beloved”), from Proto-West Germanic *diurī, from Proto-Germanic *diurijaz (“dear, precious, expensive”). Cognate with Scots dere, deir (“of great value or worth, highly valued, precious, beloved”), Saterland Frisian djuur (“precious, dear, costly, expensive”), Dutch duur (“costly, precious”), German teuer (“costly, precious”), German Low German düür, Danish dyr (“expensive”), Swedish dyr (“expensive”), Norwegian dyr (“expensive”), Icelandic dýr (“expensive”), Yiddish טייַער (tayer, “precious, expensive”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- daer
- ddear
- dearr
- dera
- edar
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dear - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "dear", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "dear". Here's where to go from here.
- "dear" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "Dr". View pair
- 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #1,753 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "D" letter cohort. D–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.