FAMILIAR

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does familiar mean? 

• FAMILIAR (noun)
  The noun FAMILIAR has 3 senses:

1. a person attached to the household of a high official (as a pope or bishop) who renders service in return for support

2. a friend who is frequently in the company of another

3. a spirit (usually in animal form) that acts as an assistant to a witch or wizard

  Familiarity information: FAMILIAR used as a noun is uncommon.

• FAMILIAR (adjective)
  The adjective FAMILIAR has 4 senses:

1. well known or easily recognized

2. within normal everyday experience; common and ordinary; not strange

3. (usually followed by 'with') well informed about or knowing thoroughly

4. having mutual interests or affections; of established friendship

  Familiarity information: FAMILIAR used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FAMILIAR (noun)

Sense 1

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))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A friend who is frequently in the company of another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

associate; companion; comrade; familiar; fellow

Context example:

comrades in arms

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 spirit (usually in animal form) that acts as an assistant to a witch or wizard

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

familiar; familiar spirit

Hypernyms ("familiar" is a kind of...):

disembodied spirit; spirit (any incorporeal supernatural being that can become visible (or audible) to human beings)

• FAMILIAR (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Well known or easily recognized

Context example:

familiar guests

Similar:

acquainted (having fair knowledge of)

old ((used for emphasis) very familiar)

long-familiar; well-known (frequently experienced; known closely or intimately)

beaten (much trodden and worn smooth or bare)

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 2

Meaning:

Within normal everyday experience; common and ordinary; not strange

Context example:

a day like any other filled with familiar duties and experiences

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 3

Meaning:

(usually followed by 'with') well informed about or knowing thoroughly

Synonyms:

conversant; familiar

Context example:

he was familiar with those roads

Similar:

informed (having much knowledge or education)

Derivation:

familiarity (personal knowledge or information about someone or something)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Having mutual interests or affections; of established friendship

Synonyms:

familiar; intimate

Context example:

pretending she is on an intimate footing with those she slanders

Similar:

close (close in relevance or relationship)

Derivation:

familiarity (close or warm friendship)

familiarity (personal knowledge or information about someone or something)

 Context examples 

“Wolf Larsen,” I said sternly, for the first time addressing him by this his most familiar name, I am unable to shoot a helpless, unresisting man.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

My mind ran upon what they would think, if they knew of my familiar acquaintance with the King's Bench Prison?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

To one of several international spies and secret agents, whose names are tolerably familiar to me.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Atoms, and the protons and neutrons that make up their nuclei, are familiar terms in science.

(Physicists discover long-sought 'pentaquark' particle, NSF)

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, is familiar to many people as a cause of serious disease.

(Study finds probiotic Bacillus eliminates Staphylococcus bacteria, National Institutes of Health)

"This research provides fundamental insights into a substance as familiar as water," says Anne-Marie Schmoltner, a program director in NSF's Division of Chemistry.

(Scientists probe the limits of ice, National Science Foundation)

For instance, activating the cells reduced the time mice spent sniffing around new objects compared to familiar ones, but turning the cells off had the opposite effect.

(The brain may actively forget during dream sleep, National Institutes of Health)

These changes result from "starspots" which, like the more-familiar sunspots on our sun, form when magnetic field concentrations prevent the normal release of energy at a star's surface.

(Kepler Watches Stellar Dancers in the Pleiades Cluster, NASA)

His forgotten cubhood, all that was associated with that familiar snarl, rushed back to him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Cycles in daily and annual sunlight cause the familiar swings in temperatures and seasons.

(Deep-sea sediments lead to new understanding of solar system, National Science Foundation)