dear
/dɪə/
"dear" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“dear” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,753 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #1,753
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - High in price; expensive.
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
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for dear is 4 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɪə/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,753 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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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Using “dear”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-E-A-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɪə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Dr” - see the side-by-side comparison. dear vs Dr
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.