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FAMILIAR
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A spirit (usually in animal form) that acts as an assistant to a witch or wizard
Synonyms:
familiar; familiar spirit
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("familiar" is a kind of...):
disembodied spirit; spirit (any incorporeal supernatural being that can become visible (or audible) to human beings)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A friend who is frequently in the company of another
Example:
comrades in arms
Synonyms:
associate; companion; comrade; familiar; fellow
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("familiar" is a kind of...):
friend (a person you know well and regard with affection and trust)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "familiar"):
date; escort (a participant in a date)
playfellow; playmate (a companion at play)
tovarich; tovarisch (a comrade (especially in Russian communism))
Derivation:
familiar (well known or easily recognized)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A person attached to the household of a high official (as a pope or bishop) who renders service in return for support
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("familiar" is a kind of...):
retainer; servant (a person working in the service of another (especially in the household))
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having mutual interests or affections; of established friendship
Example:
pretending she is on an intimate footing with those she slanders
Synonyms:
familiar; intimate
Classified under:
Similar:
close (close in relevance or relationship)
Derivation:
familiarity (close or warm friendship)
familiarity (personal knowledge or information about someone or something)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Well known or easily recognized
Example:
familiar guests
Classified under:
Similar:
old ((used for emphasis) very familiar)
long-familiar; well-known (frequently experienced; known closely or intimately)
beaten (much trodden and worn smooth or bare)
acquainted (having fair knowledge of)
Also:
known (apprehended with certainty)
Attribute:
familiarity (usualness by virtue of being familiar or well known)
Antonym:
unfamiliar (not known or well known)
Derivation:
familiar (a friend who is frequently in the company of another)
familiarity (usualness by virtue of being familiar or well known)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Within normal everyday experience; common and ordinary; not strange
Example:
a day like any other filled with familiar duties and experiences
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
common; usual (commonly encountered)
garden (the usual or familiar type)
everyday (commonplace and ordinary)
Antonym:
strange (being definitely out of the ordinary and unexpected; slightly odd or even a bit weird)
Derivation:
familiarity (usualness by virtue of being familiar or well known)
Sense 4
Meaning:
(usually followed by 'with') well informed about or knowing thoroughly
Example:
he was familiar with those roads
Synonyms:
conversant; familiar
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
informed (having much knowledge or education)
Derivation:
familiarity (personal knowledge or information about someone or something)
Context examples:
And furthermore, he wouldn't claim, not even by tacit acceptance, to be familiar with anything that was unfamiliar.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
His appearance was quite familiar to me.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
In the meantime we can do nothing here; and as I think that Varna is not familiar to any of us, why not go there more soon?
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
And he knew it, in the old familiar way, as a sound heard before.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
But someone did come and help her, though Jo did not recognize her good angels at once because they wore familiar shapes and used the simple spells best fitted to poor humanity.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The planet likely presents only one face to its star, as the moon does to Earth, instead of rotating through our familiar days and nights.
(ESO Discovers Earth-Size Planet in Habitable Zone of Nearest Star, NASA)
I passed through scenes familiar to my youth, but which I had not seen for nearly six years.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
There are small lateral columns of water outside which receive the force, and which transmit and multiply it in the manner which is familiar to you.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
They sat without a fire; but that was a privation familiar even to Fanny, and she suffered the less because reminded by it of the East room.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
