## Meanings
1. Used to emphasize how great or pure an amount, degree, or quality is.
2. So thin that you can almost see through it.
3. Very steep, almost straight up and down.

## Examples
- The army's sheer size made it impossible to resist.
- Her light, sheer dress let the sunlight through.
- It was a sheer drop of nearly two hundred feet to the rocks below.

## Synonyms
- diaphanous
- filmy
- gauzy
- gossamer
- see-through

## Antonyms
- opaque

## Derived Forms
- plank-sheer
- semisheer
- sheer-to-waist
- sheerish
- sheerly
- sheerness
- supersheer
- ultrasheer

## Related Forms
- slope
- total
- transparent

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: shere
- Root: sċǣre
- Root: *skairiz
- Root: schyre
- Root: sċīr
- Root: skyr
- Root: skírr
- Root: *skīriz
- Root: *(s)ḱeh₁y-

## Etymology
From Middle English shere, scheere, schere, skere, from Old English sċǣre (“pure, sheer; shining, clear”), from Proto-Germanic *skairiz; supplanted the semantically close shire (dialectal), from Middle English schyre, schire, shire, shir, from Old English sċīr (“clear, bright; brilliant, gleaming, shining, splendid, resplendent; pure”), beside which existed Middle English skyr, from Old Norse skírr (“pure, bright, clear”), both from Proto-Germanic *skīriz (“pure, sheer”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₁y- (“luster, gloss, shadow”). Cognate with Danish skær, German schier (“sheer”), German Lo…

## AI Etymology
Sheer is from Middle English shere, scheere, schere, skere, from Old English sċǣre (“pure, sheer; shining, clear”), from Proto-Germanic *skairiz; supplanted the semantically close shire (dialectal), from Middle English schyre, schire, shire, shir, from Old English sċīr (“clear, bright; brilliant, gleaming, shining, splendid, resplendent; pure”), beside which existed Middle English skyr, from Old Norse skírr (“pure, bright, clear”), both from Proto-Germanic *skīriz (“pure, sheer”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₁y- (“luster, gloss, shadow”). Important forms in the word's history include Middle English shere, Old English sċǣre, Proto-Germanic *skairiz, Middle English schyre, Old English sċīr, Middle English skyr, Old Norse skírr, and related intermediate forms. In current use it includes senses such as Used to emphasize how great or pure an amount, degree, or quality is and So thin that you can almost see through it.

## Topics
- Space, Position & Direction
- Describing Qualities

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