Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Infrequently occurring; uncommon: a rare event; a plant that is rare in this region.
- adj. Excellent; extraordinary: a rare sense of honor.
- adj. Thin in density: rarefied: rare air.
- adj. Cooked just a short time so as to retain juice and redness: a rare steak.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Thin; porous; not dense; of slight consistence; rarefied; having relatively little matter in a given volume: as, a rare substance; the rare atmosphere of high mountains.
- Thinly scattered; coming or occurring at wide intervals; sparse; dispersed.
- Very uncommon or infrequent; seldom occurring or to be found; hardly ever met with.
- Hence Remarkable from uncommonness; especially, uncommonly good, excellent, valuable, fine, or the like; of an excellence seldom met with.
- Synonyms Rare, Scarce, infrequent, unusual. Rare implies that only few of the kind exist: as, perfect diamonds are rare. Scarce properly implies a previous or usual condition of greater abundance. Rare, means that there are much fewer of a kind to be found than may be found where scarce would apply.
- Singular, extraordinary, incomparable, choice.
- Not thoroughly cooked; partly cooked; underdone: applied to meat: as, rare beef; a rare chop.
- Early.
- A dialectal form of rear.
- An obsolete form of roar.
Wiktionary
- adj. Very uncommon; scarce.
- adj. Cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red (in the case of steak or beef in the general sense).
- adj. thin; of low density
- v. To rear, rise up, start backwards.
- v. To rear, bring up, raise.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Early.
- adj. Nearly raw; partially cooked; not thoroughly cooked; underdone.
- adj. Not frequent; seldom met with or occurring; unusual.
- adj. Of an uncommon nature; unusually excellent; valuable to a degree seldom found.
- adj. Thinly scattered; dispersed.
- adj. Characterized by wide separation of parts; of loose texture; not thick or dense; thin.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. (of meat) cooked a short time; still red inside
- adj. not widely distributed
- adj. not widely known; especially valued for its uncommonness
- adj. having low density
- adj. recurring only at long intervals
- adj. marked by an uncommon quality; especially superlative or extreme of its kind
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French, from Latin rārus.Middle English rere, lightly boiled, from Old English hrēr; see kerə- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“It's not that those rare new classics or rare new breakthrough works can't happen, it's that they are _rare_.”
“Well," announced he, as he put down the box and pulled his adikey over his head, "I were seein 'Santa Claus th' day an 'givin' he a rare scoldin 'for passin' my maid by these two year -- a _rare_ scoldin '-- an”
“In his own thoroughly strange 1946 novel Life Comes to Seathorpe, Neil Bell appropriates the term "rare books" to designate members of a new, dissident literary canon.”
The Guardian: The stars of modern SF pick the best science fiction
“But many people are puzzled by the term "rare earth.”
Voice of America: Rare Earth Elements Becoming Hot Commodity
“If you think about it, even the term rare coins connotes scarcity, which is an important attribute of all successful products, whether they be collectibles or everyday consumer items.”
“NOTE TO EDITORS: Scientists use the term rare-earth elements to describe 17 elements, including: scandium and yttrium, plus the 15 so-called lanthanides.”
“Today, rare earths are a global story-and a global investment opportunity-even if the term rare earth is somewhat misleading.”
Company Poised to Cash In on Global Demand for Metals - CNBC
“Mexico's government says the program was aimed at raising public awareness of what it calls a rare success in Mexico, creating an honest police force.”
“When the Songwriters Hall of Fame honored Taylor Swift in June, her colleague John Mayer presented the award, comparing the 20-year-old country-pop starlet (and himself, incidentally) to a "black swan" which he defined as a rare species which both writes and performs hit songs.”
“The government says it will not tolerate what it terms rare cases of illegal production and exports.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rare’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
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frogapplause I'd like to see this rare Chinese character: link. Sep 1, 2010
bilby "But here, in Dreamland's centre,
No spoiler's hand may enter,
These visions fair, this radiance rare,
Shall never pass away.
I see the shadows falling,
The forms of old recalling;
Around me tread the mighty dead,
And slowly pass away."
- Lewis Carroll, 'Dreamland'. Aug 9, 2008