Word.ws English Dictionary

near

/nɪə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/nɪː/

near adjective: physically close.

Adjective

near (comparative nearer, superlative nearest)

  1. Physically close.
    • I can't see near objects very clearly without my glasses.
    • Stay near at all times.
    Synonyms:
    close
    Antonyms:
    remote
  2. Close in time.
    • The end is near.
    • We're getting near to Christmas.
  3. Closely connected or related.
    • The deceased man had no near relatives.
    • she is thy fathers neere kinswoman.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Leviticus 18:12
  4. Close to one's interests, affection, etc.; intimate; dear.
    • It is a matter of near consequence to me.
    • a near friend
  5. Close to anything followed or imitated; not free, loose, or rambling.
    • a version near to the original
  6. So as barely to avoid or pass injury or loss; close; narrow.
    • a near escape
  7. Approximate, almost.
    • The two words are near synonyms.
    Synonyms:
    nigh, quasi-
  8. (UK) On the side nearest to the kerb (the left-hand side if one drives on the left).
    • The near front wheel came loose.
    Antonyms:
    off
  9. (dated) Next to the driver, when he is on foot; (US) on the left of an animal or a team.
    • the near ox; the near leg
  10. (obsolete) Immediate; direct; close; short.
    • Toward ſolid good what leads the neareſt way;1673, John Milton, “[Sonnet] [Sonnet] XVII”, in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions, London: […] Tho[mas] Dring […], →OCLC, page 61
  11. (archaic) Stingy; parsimonious.
    • Don't be near with your pocketbook.
    • [T]o let you know, Miss, he's so near, it's partly a wonder how he lives at all: and yet he's worth a power of money, too.1782, [Frances Burney], chapter I, in Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress. […], volume II, London: […] T[homas] Payne and Son […], and T[homas] Cadell […], →OCLC
  12. (not comparable) Within the currently selected segment in a segmented memory architecture.
    • a near pointer
    Antonyms:
    far

Adverb

near (comparative nearer, superlative nearest)

  1. At or towards a position close in space or time.
  2. Nearly; almost.
    • He was near unconscious when I found him.
    • I jumped into the near-freezing water.

Preposition

near

  1. Physically close to, in close proximity to.
    • There are habitable planets orbiting many of the stars near our Sun.
    • Ts'ai Ch'ien 蔡乾 was born in 1908 in Changhua near Taichung, Taiwan (Formosa).1957, Edgar Snow, Random Notes on Red China, Harvard University Press, published 1968, →OCLC, page 103
  2. Close to in time.
    • The voyage was near completion.
  3. Close to in nature or degree.
    • His opinions are near the limit of what is acceptable.
    • There was no way Brín felt anything anywhere near what I felt for him. He saw me as a friend.2019, Emma Lea, A Royal Enticement

Verb

near (third-person singular simple present nears, present participle nearing, simple past and past participle neared)

  1. (ambitransitive) To come closer to; to approach.
    • The ship nears the land.
    • We started back in the same conditions, and for part of the journey ran through semi-darkness, but the sun appeared once again as we neared London.1964 May, Cecil J. Allen, “Locomotive Running Past and Present”, in Modern Railways, pages 331–332

Noun (1)

near (plural nears)

  1. The left side of a horse or of a team of horses pulling a carriage etc.
    Synonyms:
    near side
    Antonyms:
    off side

Noun (2)

near (plural nears)

  1. (Derbyshire, dialectal, rare) Kidney.

Proper noun capitalized: Near

Near (plural Nears)

  1. A surname.

near meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

near in Hindi

physically close
निकट nikaṭ, पास pās
at or towards a position close in space or time
निकट nikaṭ, पास pās
in close proximity to
... के पास ... ke pās, ... के नज़दीक ... ke nazdīk
come closer to
नज़दीक आना nazdīk ānā

near in Urdu

physically close
نزدیک nazdīk
in close proximity to
... کے پاس ... ke pās, ... کے نزدیک ... ke nazdīk

near in Bengali

কাছাকাছি

near in Telugu

physically close
దగ్గర daggara
at or towards a position close in space or time
దగ్గరగా daggaragā, దగ్గరగుట daggaraguṭa
in close proximity to
దగ్గర daggara, అన్యోన్యము anyōnyamu
More languagesFewer languages
near in Malayalam
അടുത്ത്
near in Punjabi
ਨੇੜੇ neṛe, ਲਾਗੇ lāge, ਕੋਲ਼ koḷ
near in Gujarati
નજીક
near in Sanskrit
अन्तिक antiká, आचरति ācarati
near in Pashto
نږدې niģde
near in Tagalog
malapit, halos
near in Arabic
قَرِيب qarīb, قَرِيبًا qarīban, بِٱلْقُرْب مِنَ bi-l-qurb mina, عِنْدَ ʕinda
near in Malay
dekat, dekat dengan
near in Indonesian
dekat
near in Persian
نزدیک nazdik, قریب qarib, نزد nazd, کنار kenâr-e
near in Thai
ใกล้ glâi
near in Vietnamese
gần
near in Myanmar
နီး ni:

Examples of near in a sentence

  • I near ruptured myself trying to move the piano.
  • At the end of the line nearest the Arch, under a flary light, stood an old bearded man having the look on his face of a kindly but somewhat irritated moo-cow.1914, Irvin S. Cobb, Europe Revised:
  • Without any ceremony the near man let drive at my throat with one of those beastly wavy daggers they go in for.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards...
  • […] he hears for certain that the Queen-Mother is about and hath near finished a peace with France […]1666, Samuel Pepys, Diary and Correspondence, published 1867:
  • Sir John Friend had very near completed a regiment of horse.1825, David Hume, Tobias George Smollett, The History of England, page 263:

All 40 example sentences with near

Synonyms of near

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of near

Forms of near

Adjective
comparativenearer
superlativenearest
Adverb
comparativenearer
superlativenearest
Verb
third-person singular presentnears
present participlenearing
past participleneared
pastneared
Noun
pluralnears
alternative formneer
alternative formniere
alternative formneire
Proper noun
pluralNears

Origin of near

From Middle English nere, ner, from Old English nēar (“nearer”, comparative of nēah (“nigh”), the superlative would become next), influenced by Old Norse nær (“near”), both originating from Proto-Germanic *nēhwiz (“nearer”), comparative of the adverb *nēhw (“near”), from the adjective *nēhwaz, ultimately from Pre-Proto-Germanic *h₂nḗḱwos, a lengthened-grade adjective derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂neḱ- (“to reach”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian nai, noi, näi (“close, near”), Saterland Frisian nai (“close, near”), Dutch na (“close”), naar (“to, towards”), Dutch Low Saxon nao (“after”), German nach (“after”), nahe (“near”), näher (“nearer”), German Low German nao, nå (“towards”), Luxembourgish no (“after”), Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk nær (“close, near”), Swedish när, nära (“close, near”), Gothic 𐌽𐌴𐍈 (nēƕ, “close, near”). See also nigh. Near appears to be derived from (or at the very least influenced by) the North Germanic languages; as opposed to nigh, which continues the inherited West Germanic adjective. Both, however, are ultimately derived from the same Proto-Germanic root: *nēhw (“near, close”).

From Middle English nēre, neere (“kidney, abdomen; (pl.) seat of emotions”), probably from unattested Old English *nēora, *nīora, from Proto-West Germanic *neurō, from Proto-Germanic *neurô; but alternatively borrowed from Middle Low German nêre. Cognate with Scots nere, neir, German Niere, Dutch nier, Norwegian nyre, Icelandic nýra, and more distantly Latin nefronēs pl (Praeneste dialect), Ancient Greek νεφρός (nephrós), all meaning both “kidney” and “testicle”. In most English dialects, this word survived only as a fossil in the second syllable of kidney (earlier kide-nēre), wherein the original r was apparently replaced with y.

Scottish surname, probably shortened/altered from McNair.

Words formed from near

Phrases with near

38 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with near

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about near

What does near mean?
Near means physically close.
What is near in Hindi?
Near in Hindi is निकट (nikaṭ), पास (pās), ... के पास (... ke pās). See Near meaning in Hindi.
How do you use near in a sentence?
I near ruptured myself trying to move the piano.
What part of speech is near?
Near can be an adjective, an adverb, a preposition or a verb.
How do you pronounce near?
Near is pronounced /nɪə/ (UK).

Words near near in the dictionary

  1. Neapolitans
  2. neaps
  3. neaptide
  4. neaptides
  5. neapy
  6. near
  7. near abroad
  8. near and dear
  9. near antonym
  10. near antonyms
  11. near as a toucher

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: near (page history and authors); Near (page history and authors); near (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); near (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); near (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-near.ogg, en-us-near.ogg.

Cite this entry: “near.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/near. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.