rare

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Not happening or found very often; uncommon.

   Black pearls are very rare and therefore very valuable.

2. 2
   adj

   (of meat) Cooked only briefly, so it is still red inside.

   I ordered my steak cooked rare.

Common collocations

• rare bird Adjective + noun
• rare case Adjective + noun
• rare honor Adjective + noun

From Middle English rare, from Old French rare, rere (“rare, uncommon”), from Latin rārus (“loose, spaced apart, thin, infrequent”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁- (“friable, thin”). Displaced native English geason (“rare, scarce”) (from Middle English gesen, from Old English gǣsne); and replaced Middle English seld (“rare, uncommon”) (from Old English selden) and Middle English seldscene (“rare, rarely seen, infrequent”) (from Old English seldsēne).

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