\ ˈnir 
\
\Definition of near
(Entry 1 of 4)
near
prepositionDefinition of near (Entry 2 of 4)
: close to
beaches near the city seemed to be near death
near
adjectiveDefinition of near (Entry 3 of 4)
1a : not far distant in time, place, or degree
in the near future
b : almost happening : narrowly missed or avoided
a near win in the primary a near midair collision
c : nearly not happening
a near escape
2 : closely related or intimately associated
her nearest and dearest friend
3a : being the closer of two
the near side
b : being the left-hand one of a pair
the near wheel of a cart
5 : stingy, closefisted
6a : closely resembling the standard or typical
a near desert
b : approximating the genuine
near silk
near
verbneared; nearing; nears
Definition of near (Entry 4 of 4)
: approach
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Synonyms & Antonyms for near
Synonyms: Adverb
Synonyms: Preposition
Synonyms: Adjective
Synonyms: Verb
Antonyms: Adjective
Antonyms: Verb
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Examples of near in a Sentence
Adverb
The plant was near dead when I got it.
as the campers grew cold, so they gravitated nearer to the campfire Preposition
I left the box near the door.
The cat won't go near fire.
There are several beaches near here.
She came home near midnight.
We feared he was near death. Adjective
The nearest grocery store is three blocks away.
The near side headlight is out. Verb
As the date of the performance neared, we grew more and more anxious.
He always cheers up when baseball season nears.
The airplane began to descend as it neared the island.
He must be nearing 80 years of age.
The negotiators were nearing a decision.
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Recent Examples on the Web: Adverb Davies is less interested in the bourgeois fabric of life—where McLaughlin is like Ibsen, whose plays are cluttered with objects, Davies is closer to Chekhov, whose characters act on a near-empty stage.
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Claire Messud, Harpers Magazine, "New Books," 5 Jan. 2021 Even inside a near-empty arena that had about 100 spectators instead of the maximum 19,515 -- a mixture of family members, team employees and a few Pistons legends -- Drummond deserved a longer tribute.
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Chris Fedor, cleveland, "Inside Andre Drummond’s return to Detroit: An emotional night ends with a Cavaliers win and J.B. Bickerstaff’s trust," 27 Dec. 2020 Pope Francis was set to celebrate Mass in a near-empty Vatican service early in the evening, hours before a curfew went into effect in Italy.
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Fox News, "Coronavirus dampens Christmas joy in Bethlehem and elsewhere," 25 Dec. 2020 On Christmas Eve, the pope celebrated Mass in a near-empty St. Peter’s Basilica, with only about 200 people in attendance.
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Francis X. Rocca, WSJ, "Pope Francis, in Christmas Day Speech, Calls for Equitable Distribution of Covid-19 Vaccines," 25 Dec. 2020 Pope Francis was set to celebrate Mass in a near-empty Vatican service early in the evening as strict new curfew rules were going into effect.
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Arkansas Online, "Coronavirus dampens Christmas joy in Bethlehem and elsewhere," 24 Dec. 2020 Kurt Zellers, the former Republican House Speaker from Maple Grove, said he was concerned by a near-total GOP collapse in Hennepin County.
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Patrick Condon, Star Tribune, "Minnesota Republicans lack a formula to win statewide," 7 Nov. 2020 The more glaring contrast between American and British law enforcement—both real and fictive—is the near-total absence of handguns in Britain.
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Christopher Orr, The Atlantic, "Why British Police Shows Are Better," 11 Oct. 2020 This year, the Hungarian leader handed back near-total emergency political powers that the Hungarian parliament rubber-stamped after the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Washington Post, "E.U. issues its first rule-of-law report, angering leaders of Hungary and Poland," 30 Sep. 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Preposition Low storm chances will be possible mid-afternoon today near and east of the DFW area.
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Dallas News, "Staying hot and humid through the weekend," 6 June 2020 The mural ends near St. John’s Episcopal Church, where Trump staged a photo-op on Monday after officers in riot gear fired tear gas and charged demonstrators to make way for the president and his entourage.
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Ben Fox, Anchorage Daily News, "DC paints huge Black Lives Matter mural near White House," 5 June 2020 In April, Virgin Atlantic temporarily suspended all passenger flights after weeks of operating near-empty flights due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Cailey Rizzo, Travel + Leisure, "Virgin Atlantic to Resume Flights to the U.S. and Asia in July," 5 June 2020 Chaos inside the barbecue shack An LMPD officer fired pepper balls to disperse people near the barbecue shack, and then into the kitchen through the open door, video released by police shows.
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Kala Kachmar, The Courier-Journal, "David McAtee's barbecue stand was a safe haven. But one deadly night changed everything," 5 June 2020 For the most part, Black Mirror is a series extrapolating the dark ramifications of humanity’s obsession with technology to dystopian near-future settings.
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Adam Epstein, Quartz, "Comparing US race issues to “Black Mirror” trivializes a real crisis," 5 June 2020 The path its leaders took in their efforts to lift weak growth, chronically low inflation and near-zero interest rates has been followed, repeatedly, by others in the rich world.
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The Economist, "Free exchange Japan probes the limits of economic policy," 4 June 2020 Prices reflect the storage glut: Henry Hub near-term futures are at $1.82 per million British thermal units, just 27 cents above their multiyear low...
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Jinjoo Lee, WSJ, "America’s Natural-Gas Woes Are Imported," 4 June 2020 Van Nuys had its hottest May ever recorded, and several other SoCal cities experienced near-record highs.
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Arlene Martinez, USA TODAY, "In CA: Sheriff tells people they're welcome to not use 911; waiting on 300 million masks," 3 June 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective Thursday’s double-digit death count came a day after the city reported 25 new deaths — a near record.
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Marina Starleaf Riker, ExpressNews.com, "Health officials: 18,000 San Antonians might be infected with COVID-19 right now," 14 Jan. 2021 Now, analysts say the conditions are ripe to further lift results this year, buoyed by near-record low interest rates and another round of federal stimulus, including direct payments to some Americans beginning this week.
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Mike Colias, WSJ, "Auto Sales in 2020 Expected to Hit Lowest Point in Nearly a Decade," 5 Jan. 2021 Harlow also won the 100-yard Freestyle race Saturday with a near-record time of 45.11.
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Al.com Reports, al, "Huntsville, T.R. Miller boys claim AHSAA state swimming titles again," 6 Dec. 2020 It’s the second time this week that a daily record for new cases has been set, after 760 cases were recorded Thursday (followed closely by Friday’s near-record total of 756 cases).
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Anchorage Daily News, "Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 1 death and a record 933 new cases reported Saturday," 5 Dec. 2020 Wildfire fuel in grassland and forest areas is approaching near-record levels of dryness for early December thanks to a prolonged dry spell that shows no signs of abating for weeks, according to the National Weather Service.
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Steve Rubenstein, SFChronicle.com, "Weekend forecast brings potential fire risk for Northern California — in December," 2 Dec. 2020 The Oregon Health Authority on Sunday announced a near-record 1,599 new positive or presumed positive coronavirus cases as the state’s caseload remained high despite Gov. Kate Brown’s ongoing freeze.
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oregonlive, "Coronavirus in Oregon: State’s death toll passes 900 as 1,599 new cases and 9 deaths are reported," 29 Nov. 2020 With five new deaths reported Sunday, a near-record 75 people have died in the past week.
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Julie Jag, The Salt Lake Tribune, "Coronavirus in Utah: Thanksgiving week dip no indicator of better times ahead," 29 Nov. 2020 But for now, many investors are still leaning toward higher longer-maturity yields, with speculators holding a near-record short position on bond futures.
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Vivien Lou Chen, Bloomberg.com, "A 1% Treasury Yield Proves Elusive With Pandemic Intensifying," 15 Nov. 2020 Recent Examples on the Web: Verb The Federal Reserve predicts unemployment will not near pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2023.
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Anchorage Daily News, "The COVID-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history," 1 Oct. 2020 The Federal Reserve predicts unemployment will not near pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2023.
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Anchorage Daily News, "The COVID-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history," 1 Oct. 2020 The Federal Reserve predicts unemployment will not near pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2023.
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Anchorage Daily News, "The COVID-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history," 1 Oct. 2020 The Federal Reserve predicts unemployment will not near pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2023.
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Anchorage Daily News, "The COVID-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history," 1 Oct. 2020 The Federal Reserve predicts unemployment will not near pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2023.
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Anchorage Daily News, "The COVID-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history," 1 Oct. 2020 The Federal Reserve predicts unemployment will not near pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2023.
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Anchorage Daily News, "The COVID-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history," 1 Oct. 2020 The Federal Reserve predicts unemployment will not near pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2023.
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Anchorage Daily News, "The COVID-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history," 1 Oct. 2020 The Federal Reserve predicts unemployment will not near pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2023.
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Anchorage Daily News, "The COVID-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history," 1 Oct. 2020
See MoreThese example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'near.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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From the Editors at Merriam-Webster
The Weird Logic of 'Near Miss'
The Weird Logic of 'Near Miss'
It's not the catastrophe it could have been.
Dictionary Entries near near
See More Nearby EntriesStatistics for near
Last Updated
20 Jan 2021
Look-up Popularity
Cite this Entry
“Near.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/near. Accessed 26 Jan. 2021.
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More Definitions for near
near
adverbEnglish Language Learners Definition of near
(Entry 1 of 4)
: close to someone or something in distance
: not far away in time
: almost or nearly
near
prepositionEnglish Language Learners Definition of near (Entry 2 of 4)
: close to (something or someone)
near
adjectiveEnglish Language Learners Definition of near (Entry 3 of 4)
: located a short distance away
: not far away in time
—used to refer to the side, end, etc., that is closer
near
verbEnglish Language Learners Definition of near (Entry 4 of 4)
: to come closer in space or time to someone or something
See the full definition for near in the English Language Learners Dictionary
near
adverb\ ˈnir \
\nearer; nearest
Kids Definition of near
(Entry 1 of 4)
near
prepositionKids Definition of near (Entry 2 of 4)
: close to
We'll take a table near the window.
near
adjectivenearer; nearest
Kids Definition of near (Entry 3 of 4)
1 : closely related or associated
a near relative
2 : not far away in distance or time
the nearest exit the near future
3 : coming close : narrow a near miss
4 : being the closer of two
the near side
near
verbneared; nearing
Kids Definition of near (Entry 4 of 4)
: to come near : approach As they neared the burrow Willie … came galloping toward them …— Robert Lawson, Rabbit Hill
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Time Traveler for near
The first known use of near was in the 13th century
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