• (RP) IPA: /ɹɛə(ɹ)/
• (Irish) IPA: [ɹɜɹ]
• (America, Canada) IPA: /ɹɛɚ/, /ɹɛɹ/

From Middle English rare, from Old French rare, rere, from Latin rārus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁reh₁-.

rare (comparative rarer, superlative rarest)

1. Very uncommon; scarce.

   Black pearls are very rare and therefore very valuable.

   Synonyms: scarce, selcouth, seld, selly, geason, uncommon, Thesaurus:rare

   Antonyms: common, frequent, Thesaurus:common

2. (of a gas) Thin; of low density.
3. (UK, slang) Good; enjoyable.
   • 1981, Chris Difford (lyrics), Glenn Tilbrook (vocal), "Vanity Fair" (song):

     Sees her reflection in a butcher shop.

     She finds it all quite rare

     That her meat's all vanity fair.

• rarity

• French: rare, peu commun
• German: selten, rar
• Italian: raro
• Portuguese: raro
• Russian: ре́дкий
• Spanish: escaso, raro, insólito, inusual, infrecuente, inhabitual

• German: verdünnt
• Portuguese: rarefeito
• Russian: разрежённый

rare (plural rares)

1. (gaming) A scarce or uncommon item.
   • 1995, George Baxter, Larry W. Smith, Mastering Magic Cards, page 116:

     Most of the time, you do this by trading low-valued rares for more valuable ones or trading uncommons for rares. Other times it's trading cards that are in print for ones that are out of print, or low-value rares for good uncommons.

From a dialectal variant of rear, from Middle English rere, from Old English hrēr, hrēre, from hrēran, from Proto-Germanic *hrōzijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱroHs-.

rare (comparative rarer, superlative rarest)

1. (cooking) Particularly of meat, especially beefsteak: cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red.

   Antonyms: well done

   • 1717, John Dryden, “Book VIII. [The Story of Baucis and Philemon.]”, in Ovid's Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗, page 285 ↗:

     Then Curds and Cream, the Flow'r of Country Fare, / And new-laid Eggs, which Baucis’ buſie Care / Turn’d by a gentle Fire, and roaſted rare.

• French: saignant
• German: blutig, englisch
• Italian: al sangue
• Portuguese: mal passado
• Russian: непрожаренный
• Spanish: crudo, poco hecho

Variant of rear.

rare (rares, present participle raring; simple past and past participle rared)

1. (US, intransitive) To rear, rise up, start backwards.
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 328:

     Frank pretended to rare back as if bedazzled, shielding his eyes with a forearm.

2. (US, transitive) To rear, bring up, raise.

Compare rather, rath.

rare

1. (obsolete) Early.
   • 1614–1615, Homer, “The Sixth Book of Homer’s Odysseys”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer's Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC ↗; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume I, London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC ↗, page 147 ↗, lines 420–423:

     The men, that sway / In work of those tools that so fit our state, / Are rude mechanicals, that rare and late / Work in the market-place;

     The spelling has been modernized.