dear
part of speech
adjective (dear, dearer, dearest); noun (dear, dears); interjection (oh dear)
meaning for a pupil
1) Dear means loved or very much liked: «my dear friend». tree →
2) Dear is the polite word at the start of a letter: «Dear Grandma». tree →
3) In shops (mostly UK), dear means costing a lot. tree →
4) «Dear» is a kind word for a person you love: «Thank you, dear». tree →
5) «Oh dear!» shows you are sorry or worried. tree →
sense in the lessons
at the start of a letter (story only); or «dearer» meaning more expensive; in writing lessons: letters start with «Dear …,»; in everyday life: «oh dear» when something goes wrong; it tells the reader about love, politeness or a high price
examples
- Dear Grandma, I have 5 new books. tree →
- The red bag is dearer than the blue one. tree →
- Apples are $2 dearer this week. tree →
- Which toy is the dearest? tree →
- Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to ask about the club. tree →
- She is a dear friend of my mother's. tree →
- Oh dear, I've spilt my juice! tree →
- Thank you, dear, that is very kind. tree →
- "That is for Hereafterthis, my dear." tree →
note
As «costly» it compares prices: «$2 dearer» means add 2. In a letter it carries no clue. Homophone: deer (the animal) sounds the same. «Dear» meaning expensive is more British; Americans say «expensive».
In the corpora
- A credit score is a rating of how reliably someone pays; missing payments lowers it and makes borrowing harder and dearer.
- The White Rabbit has pink eyes and says "Oh dear!
- The Duchess greets Alice: «You can't think how glad I am to see you again, you dear old thing!»
- Toad's «feeble voice»: «Thank you so much, dear Ratty!
- «What's become of them, the dear fellows?
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «dear» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.