sear
/sɪɹ/adjective, verb, noun
sear is spelled S-E-A-R: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 41,154th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “sear vs seer” about 140 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, sear means “Dry; withered, especially of vegetation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in sear?
| Letters | 4: S-E-A-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 41,154th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 sear?
Sear appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 41,154th 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 sear?
- UK /sɪə̯(ɹ)/
- British /sɪː(ɹ)/
- US /sɪɹ/
Sear has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-sear.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with sear
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: sere (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with sear?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sear from its last stressed vowel (/ɪɹ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: sare, rase.
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 sear
- searer comparative
- more sear comparative
- searest superlative
- most sear superlative
- sere
- sare
- sears present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- searing participle, present
- seared participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sear mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Dry; withered, especially of vegetation.
verb
- 1
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.
- 2
To wither; to dry up.
- 3
To make callous or insensible.
- 4
To mark permanently, as if by burning.
The events of that day were seared into her memory.
noun
- 1
A scar produced by searing
- 2
Part of a gun that retards the hammer until the trigger is pulled.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sear in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | saisir, griller, brûler, calciner, marquer , gâchette |
| German | ausbrennen, versengen, scharf anbraten, ausdörren, verbrennen, austrocknen |
| Portuguese | queimar, chamuscar, tostar |
| Spanish | chamuscar, socarrar, abrasar , fiador |
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 sear come from?
From Middle English sere, seer, seere, from Old English sēar, sīere (“dry, sere, sear, withered, barren”), from Proto-West Germanic *sauʀ(ī), from Proto-Germanic *sauzaz (“dry”), from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂ews- (“dry, parched”) (also reconstructed as *h₂sews-).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).