dear

\ˈdɪɹ\

/\ˈdɪɹ\/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“dear” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #35,457) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#35,457
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Cher, chère.

Corpus desk

Index FR-dear · dear · French

dear · rank #35,457 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #35,457
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH cétacés

Nearest frequency peer: cétacés (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « dear »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « dear » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

dear vs dr
50% similar
dear vs des
50% similar
dear vs dur
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for dear
PropertyValue
Headworddear
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ˈdɪɹ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#35,457
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « dear »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.dearse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « cétacés » (#35,456), « dello » (#35,458), « cupcakes » (#35,455). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « dear » est au #35,457. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for dear is neighbouring look-alikes ("dr", "des", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced \ˈdɪɹ\. Frequency #35,457 among 5,307 “D” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for dear, with forms such as "ddear", "dearr", and "dera". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "dr", "des", "dur", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is dear, spelled D-E-A-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Cher, chère.
  2. 2
    Coûteux, important, précieux.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how dear appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. "My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?"

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ddear
  • dearr
  • dera
  • edar

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dear - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

ddear1dearr1dera2edar2
Edit distance from "dear"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "dear"?
"dear" is spelled D-E-A-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈdɪɹ\.
What does "dear" mean?
As an adjective, "dear" means: Cher, chère.
What words are commonly confused with "dear"?
"dear" is commonly confused with "dr", "des", "dur". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "dear"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "dear" is \ˈdɪɹ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "dear" come from?
"dear" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "dear", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

DESS#35,460dove#35,471drac#35,472Clem#35,428

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list