Word.ws English Dictionary

near and dear

near and dear prepositional phrase: loved or cared about greatly.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Loved or cared about greatly.
    • This bracelet is a gift from my spouse, who I hold near and dear.
    • Writing has been near and dear to me for a long time.

Questions about near and dear

What does near and dear mean?
Near and dear means loved or cared about greatly.
What part of speech is near and dear?
Near and dear is a prepositional phrase.

Words near near and dear in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: near and dear (page history and authors). 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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