Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use familiar in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Familiar means known to one, or generally known; commonplace. Example: “There’s a familiar face; that tune sounds familiar.”

Examples of familiar by meaning

adjectiveKnown to one, or generally known; commonplace.

  • There’s a familiar face; that tune sounds familiar.
  • The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen.1963, Margery Allingham, “Eye Witness”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 249
  • Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

adjectiveAcquainted.

  • I'm quite familiar with this system; she's not familiar with manual gears.

adjectiveIntimate or friendly.

  • We are on familiar terms now; our neighbour is not familiar
  • Don’t be familiar with me, boy!

nounAn attendant spirit, often in animal or demon form.

  • The witch’s familiar was a black cat.
  • The familiars of the magicians, on the other hand, were not in all cases evil, and often may have approximated the "guides" with whom present-day spiritualists are well acquainted.1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 75
  • "What power hath gold?" Catweazle wondered as he picked up his familiar and put him in his special pocket.1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 8

More sentences with familiar

  • It began with the familiar political motives of civil service rationalization and downsizing.From the entry rationalization
  • Though I'd never gone to Boston before, everything looked strangely familiar.From the entry strangely
  • I'm only passingly familiar with Schopenhauer: I haven't read many of his works.From the entry passingly
  • A child familiar with past tenses formed with "-ed" overregularizes by saying "goed" instead of "went".From the entry overregularize
  • Bright red light filled the room, it was eye-searing, yet strangely familiar.From the entry eye-searing
  • The pitch of middle "C" is familiar to many musicians.From the entry pitch
  • I took a gander and she seemed so familiar.From the entry gander
  • The sight in front of me seemed somehow familiar.From the entry sight
  • She felt the familiar cocaine rush soon after injecting herself.From the entry rush
  • The contents of the cup had a familiar aroma.From the entry contents
  • The sailors must be familiar with the cargo and hatchwork.From the entry hatchwork
  • He beat the familiar and well-trodden path to her door.From the entry well-trodden
  • A Florentine mosaic is a familiar instance of work in pietra dura, though the ground may be soft marble.From the entry pietra dura
  • Every liturgiological student is or should be familiar with the thesis, laid down by Dr. Probst as fundamental.From the entry liturgiological
  • Three-camera sitcoms create a familiar, theatrical feel like classic shows such as Seinfeld, Friends, and The Big Bang Theory.From the entry three-camera sitcom
  • Some of these abstractions are so familiar that we have forgotten they are metaphors.2026, Michael Falk, “Wikilambda the ultimate: the Wikimedia foundation’s search for the perfect language”, in AI & Society: Knowledge…. From the entry nub
  • Romance relies on familiar narrative formulas, like the guarantee of an “H.E.A.” or “happily ever after.”2026 February 8, Alexandra Alter, “The New Fabio Is Claude”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry hea
  • He has a few cats, though they’re better suited for snuggling than serving as helpful familiars.2024 October 26, Scottie Andrew, “Witches walk among us — but they’re not like the fictional ones you grew up with”, in CNN, archived from…. From the entry pagan
  • A pair of very familiar, very emblazoned sapphire blue eyes were watching me.2024, Andrea Smith, Shadows & Dreams. From the entry emblazoned
  • Diehard soccer fans likely have become familiar with England’s Sky Sports News channel over the years.2023 March 8, Jonathan Tannenwald, “CBS is launching a 24/7 soccer channel online”, in The Philadelphia Inquirer. From the entry soccer
  • Anti-Judaism, as defined here, differs in several crucial respects from its more familiar cousin, antisemitism.2023 October 1, David M. Freidenreich, Jewish Muslims: How Christians Imagined Islam as the Enemy, Oakland, California: University of…. From the entry anti-Judaism
  • In more familiar Mafia terms, it's as if he murdered a made man.2023 March 14, Caryn James, “John Wick: Chapter 4: 'Soars above most action films'”, in BBC. From the entry safe space
  • Dad bundled Studmuffin into a purrito with the blue towel, but my familiar had stopped purring.2023, Maddy Savanna, Witchy Business Mysteries: Books 1-5. From the entry purrito
  • This sort of elderly practitioner who talks about tummy is still a familiar figure in the countryside.2023, Nicolas Freeling, No Part in Your Death. From the entry tutster
  • Such highly intensive deployment left little wriggle room, something with which Dunster is all too familiar.2022 October 5, Nick Brodrick, “Pendolinos: a huge role to play”, in RAIL, number 967, page 41. From the entry beer and skittles
  • It's a bit more familiar for people moving from "the birdsite," as Mastodon users often call Twitter.2022 November 14, Stephen Shankland, “I Want to Like Mastodon. The Decentralized Network Isn't Making That Easy”, in CNET, archived from…. From the entry birdsite
  • Some of the attendees were “absolutely floored,” said an official familiar with the proceedings.2021 June 3, Katherine Eban, “The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins”, in Vanity Fair. From the entry floor
  • Britain is caught in a Covid doom loop, the pattern of which is becoming depressingly familiar.2021 December 16, Larry Elliott, “Britain must find a new way out of its Covid doom loop”, in The Guardian. From the entry doom loop
  • It also brings a playful lens to familiar neighbourhoods—reinventing them in ways that 'ludify' urban spaces.2021, Ingrid Richardson, Larissa Hjorth, Hugh Davies, Understanding Games and Game Cultures, page 1871. From the entry ludify
  • Ins is a collective noun signifying humans, recognisable familiar human beings.2020, Abu-Hamdiyyah, Muhammad, The Qur'an: an introduction, Routledge, page 101. From the entry jinn
  • That the myths themselves sound so familiar in 34 The Attack on Nova Scotia Schools.2020 April 7, Grant Frost, The Attack on Nova Scotia Schools: The Story Behind 25 Years of Tumultuous Change, Formac Publishing Company…. From the entry edumyth

Meaning of familiar

  1. adjective Known to one, or generally known; commonplace.
  2. adjective Acquainted.
  3. adjective Intimate or friendly.

Full definition of familiar

Questions about familiar in a sentence

How do you use familiar in a sentence?
Familiar is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “There’s a familiar face; that tune sounds familiar.”
What is a short sentence with familiar?
“Don’t be familiar with me, boy!”
What does familiar mean?
Familiar means known to one, or generally known; commonplace.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: familiar (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use familiar in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/familiar. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.