Skip to main content
PlainSpell

rear

UK /ˈɹɪə/verb, adjective, adverb, noun

rear is spelled R-E-A-R: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 27 times per million words in written English, the 3,422nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, rear means “To bring up to maturity, as offspring; to educate; to instruct; to foster” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in rear?

Letters4: R-E-A-R
Syllables1
In writing27 times per million words; the 3,422nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is rear?

Rear appears 27 times per million words in written English, the 3,422nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce rear?

  • UK /ˈɹɪə/
  • UK [ˈɹʷɪə̯]
  • British /ˈɹɪː/

Rear has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-rear.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with rear

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

rare vs rear0 B

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with rear?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as rear from its last stressed vowel (/ɪə/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: rare.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of rear

  • rears present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • rearing participle, present
  • reared participle, past
  • reer
  • rere
  • rare
  • rearer comparative
  • more rear comparative
  • rearest superlative
  • most rear superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does rear mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To bring up to maturity, as offspring; to educate; to instruct; to foster.

  2. 2

    To breed and raise.

    The family has been rearing cattle for 200 years.

  3. 3

    To rise up on the hind legs.

    The horse was shocked, and thus reared.

  4. 4

    To get angry.

  5. 5

    To rise high above, tower above.

  6. 6

    To raise physically or metaphorically; to lift up; to cause to rise, to elevate.

    Poverty reared its ugly head. (appeared, started, began to have an effect)

  7. 7

    rareTo construct by building; to set up

    to rear defenses or houses

  8. 8

    rareTo raise spiritually; to lift up; to elevate morally.

  9. 9

    To place in the rear; to secure the rear of.

  10. 10

    UKvulgarTo sodomize (perform anal sex)

  11. 11

    To move; stir.

  12. 12

    To carve.

    Rear that goose!

  13. 13

    obsoleteTo revive, bring to life, quicken. (only in the phrase, to rear to life)

    He healeth the blind and he reareth to life the dead.

adjective

  1. 1

    Being behind, or in the hindmost part; hindmost.

    the rear rank of a company

  2. 2

    (of eggs) Underdone; nearly raw.

  3. 3

    US(of meats) Rare.

adverb

  1. 1

    UKearly; soon

noun

  1. 1

    The back or hindmost part; that which is behind, or last in order.

  2. 2

    Specifically, the part of an army or fleet which comes last, or is stationed behind the rest.

  3. 3

    The buttocks or bottom.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate rear?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of rear: RR.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Rear in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchédifier (to lift, raise etc. physically), ériger (to lift spiritually), élever (to bring up to maturity), arrière, postérieur (being behind, or in the hindmost part), derrière (the back or hindmost part)
Germanaufrichten (to lift, raise etc. physically), aufziehen, erziehen, großziehen (to bring up to maturity), züchten (to breed and raise), aufbäumen (to rise on the hind legs)
Portugueseerguer, levantar, alçar, criar (to lift, raise etc. physically), traseiro, posterior (being behind, or in the hindmost part)
Spanisherigir (to lift, raise etc. physically), criar (to bring up to maturity), trasero (being behind, or in the hindmost part), parte posterior, trasera (the back or hindmost part), construir (to set up, construct)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does rear come from?

From Middle English reren (“to raise”), from Old English rǣran (“to raise, set upright, promote, exalt, begin, create, give rise to, excite, rouse, arouse, stir up”), from Proto-West Germanic *raiʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *raizijaną, *raisijaną (“to cause to rise, raise”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rey- (“to lift oneself, rise”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after rear