ENGLISH
REFERENCE

familiar

n.
B1 Intermediate Oxford US //fəˈmɪɫjɝ// UK //fəmˈɪliə// fa·mil·iar Archaic General-service

n. easy to recognize because you have seen, heard, or experienced it before. It describes something you know well enough to feel comfortable with.

n. well-known from previous experience or encounter; easily recognized. Often used to describe a sense of recognition that lacks specific detail.


SIMPLE

Her face looks familiar, but I cannot remember her name.

CONTEXTUAL

The smell of fresh coffee was a familiar comfort as he walked into his childhood home.

COMPLEX

The author uses a familiar narrative structure to ground the reader before introducing more experimental and challenging themes in the later chapters.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Origin

From Middle English familiar, familier, from Latin familiāris (“pertaining to servants; pertaining to the household”). By surface analysis, family + -ar. Piecewise doublet of familial. Displaced native Old English hīwcūþ.

Usage

Commonly takes the preposition 'with' when describing a person's knowledge ('familiar with the rules') or 'to' when describing the thing being recognized ('the song was familiar to me').

Pitfall

I am familiar to this city.I am familiar with this city.Use 'familiar with' when the subject is the person who has the knowledge.

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