Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Something rare.
- n. The quality or state of being rare; infrequency of occurrence.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The condition of being rare, or not dense, or of occupying, as a corporeal substance, much space with little matter; thinness; tenuity: opposed to density: as, the rarity of a gas.
- n. The state of being uncommon or of infrequent occurrence; uncommonness; infrequency.
- n. Something that is rare or uncommon; a thing valued for its scarcity or for its unusual excellence.
Wiktionary
- n. A rare object.
- n. A measure of the scarcity of an object.
- n. Thinness; the property of having low density
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The quality or state of being rare; rareness; thinness.
- n. That which is rare; an uncommon thing; a thing valued for its scarcity.
WordNet 3.0
- n. noteworthy scarcity
- n. something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting
- n. a rarified quality
Examples
“In short, it's only value lies in its rarity -- and such rarity is only attractive at times when dollars are anything but.”
The Huffington Post: James Berman: Gold: A Little Gaudy in This Light
“Silver is beautiful, useful, valuable and growing in rarity and demand.”
“They use the word rarity to describe this strain early in the outbreak.”
“The most important aspect of a gemstone is its 'rarity' - means the economical value of these precious and semi-precious stones is measured in terms of its rarity in appearance.”
“But today, tissue volume trumps biomedical rarity, which is why anyone who undergoes surgery at hospitals such as Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess is first asked to sign away the ownership rights to his excised tissues to Ardais, a for-profit corporation.”
The Huffington Post: Harriet A. Washington: Gene Patenting Produces Profits, Not Cures
“The rarity is the TV execs who are asking their leading ladies like January Jones and Edie Falco to ease off the extensive daily workouts and eat more so that the actors better represent women across the country.”
The Huffington Post: Dr. Mike Dow: Mad (Wo)Men: Barbies Couldn't Menstruate
“I have seen this rarity, which is now in the strong room where Mr. PIERPONT MORGAN keeps his autographs safe equally from fire and from theft -- if not from the desire to thieve.”
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, August 4th, 1920
“The interesting story teller is a rarity, which is only another way of saying that the ability to narrate and describe needs cultivation.”
“Twichell, Aldrich -- those oldest friends who had themselves learned the meaning of grief -- spoke such few and futile words as the language can supply to allay a heart's mourning, each recalling the rarity and beauty of the life that had slipped away.”
“Howells, Twichell, Aldrich -- those oldest friends who had themselves learned the meaning of grief -- spoke such few and futile words as the language can supply to allay a heart's mourning, each recalling the rarity and beauty of the life that had slipped away.”
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