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familiar

When something is so commonplace you know it well, it's familiar. A familiar song might be one that you hum along to without even thinking about it.

Like family, anything or anyone you're familiar with has been in your life for a while. It can be used in many ways. After six years of Spanish, you'll be familiar with how to conjugate verbs. You and your close friends are on familiar terms. The smell of musty tent fabric is familiar to anyone who grew up going camping a lot, and may bring on a wave of nostalgia.

DEFINITIONS OF: familiar

1

n a friend who is frequently in the company of another

Synonyms:
associate, companion, comrade, fellow
Types:
show 4 types...
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date, escort
a participant in a date
playfellow, playmate
a companion at play
tovarich, tovarisch
a comrade (especially in Russian communism)
blind date
a participant in a blind date (someone you meet for the first time when you have a date with them)
Type of:
friend
a person you know well and regard with affection and trust

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

Type of:
retainer, servant
a person working in the service of another (especially in the household)

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

Synonyms:
familiar spirit
Type of:
disembodied spirit, spirit
any incorporeal supernatural being that can become visible (or audible) to human beings

adj well known or easily recognized

“a familiar figure”
“familiar songs”
“familiar guests”
Synonyms
acquainted
having fair knowledge of
beaten
much trodden and worn smooth or bare
long-familiar, well-known
frequently experienced; known closely or intimately
old
(used for emphasis) very familiar
known
apprehended with certainty
Antonyms:
unfamiliar
not known or well known
strange, unknown
not known before
unacquainted, unacquainted with, unfamiliar with
having little or no knowledge of
foreign, strange
relating to or originating in or characteristic of another place or part of the world
unknown
not known
show more antonyms...

adj within normal everyday experience; common and ordinary; not strange

“familiar ordinary objects found in every home”
“a familiar everyday scene”
“a familiar excuse”
“a day like any other filled with familiar duties and experiences”
Synonyms
common, usual
commonly encountered
common or garden
the usual or familiar type
everyday
commonplace and ordinary
Antonyms:
strange, unusual
being definitely out of the ordinary and unexpected; slightly odd or even a bit weird
antic, fantastic, fantastical, grotesque
ludicrously odd
crazy
bizarre or fantastic
curious, funny, odd, peculiar, queer, rum, rummy, singular
beyond or deviating from the usual or expected
eerie, eery
inspiring a feeling of fear; strange and frightening
exotic
strikingly strange or unusual
freaky
strange and somewhat frightening
gothic
characterized by gloom and mystery and the grotesque
oddish
somewhat strange
other
very unusual; different in character or quality from the normal or expected
quaint
strange in an interesting or pleasing way
quaint
very strange or unusual; odd or even incongruous in character or appearance
weird
strikingly odd or unusual
show more antonyms...

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

“familiar with the complex machinery”
“he was familiar with those roads”
Synonyms:
conversant
informed
having much knowledge or education

adj having mutual interests or affections; of established friendship

“on familiar terms”
Synonyms:
intimate
close
close in relevance or relationship
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