as in darlings
a person with whom one is in love
I love you, dear
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dears
Noun
-
The Indiana Hoosiers will take the field for college football’s National Championship game Monday night as the darlings of the sports world.—
Keith O’Brien,
The Atlantic,
17 Jan. 2026 -
Hawke seems most likely to still make it into the category as well, as one of the main critical darlings of the season, but faces the challenge of likely being the sole nominee for his film.—
Marcus Jones,
IndieWire,
14 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
As the Fever point guard celebrates her 24th birthday, see the most adorable photos of the college sweethearts.—
Brendan Le,
PEOPLE,
22 Jan. 2026
-
High school sweethearts from Duncan, Bradley Cox ran a third-generation dry cleaning business in Oklahoma City, and Farah Cox was a speech pathologist.—
J.C. Hallman,
Oklahoma Watch,
22 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
May these two sweeties never travel to Russia ever again.—
Maggie Fremont,
Vulture,
1 Jan. 2026
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Cite this Entry
“Dears.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dears. Accessed 29 Jan. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
