fair

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.
  2. Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure; innocent.
  3. Light in color, pale, particularly with regard to skin tone but also referring to blond and red hair.
  4. Just.
  5. Adequate, reasonable, or decent, but not excellent.
  6. Favorable to a ship's course.
  7. Favorable, pleasant.
  8. Not overcast; cloudless; clear.
  9. Free from obstacles or hindrances; unobstructed; unencumbered; open; direct; said of a road, passage, etc.
  10. Without sudden change of direction or curvature; smooth; flowing; said of the figure of a vessel, and of surfaces, water lines, and other lines.
  11. Between the baselines.
  12. Taken direct from an opponent's foot, without the ball touching the ground or another player.
noun
  1. Something which is fair (in various senses of the adjective).
  2. A woman, a member of the ‘fair sex’; also as a collective singular, women.
  3. Fairness, beauty.
  4. A fair woman; a sweetheart.
  5. Good fortune; good luck.
verb
  1. To smoothen or even a surface (especially a connection or junction on a surface).
  2. To bring into perfect alignment (especially about rivet holes when connecting structural members).
  3. To make an animation smooth, removing any jerkiness.
  4. To construct or design with the aim of producing a smooth outline or reducing air drag or water resistance.
  5. To make fair or beautiful.
  6. To become fair (favorable, not stormy).
adv
  1. Clearly, openly, frankly, civilly, honestly, favorably, auspiciously, agreeably.
  2. Almost; to a great extent but not literally.
noun
  1. A community gathering to celebrate and exhibit local achievements.
  2. An event for public entertainment and trade, a market.
  3. An event for professionals in a trade to learn of new products and do business, a trade fair.
  4. A travelling amusement park (called a funfair in British English and a (travelling) carnival in US English).
name
  1. A surname.
noun
  1. Acronym of findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability, a set of principles for data management.
name
  1. Acronym of Federation for American Immigration Reform.
  2. Acronym of Facebook AI Research.

Pronunciation

/ˈfɛə/ [ˈfɛə̯] /ˈfɛː/ [ˈfɛː] /ˈfɜː/ [ˈfɜː] /ˈfeː/ [ˈfeː] /ˈfe̝ə/ [ˈfe̝ə] /ˈfiə/ [ˈfiə] /ˈfɛɚ/ [ˈfɛɚ] ~ [ˈfɛɹ̩] En-us-fair.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-fair.wav /ˈfe(ː)ɹ/ [ˈfe(ː)ɹ] ~ /ˈfɛ(ː)ɹ/ [ˈfɛ(ː)ɹ]

Word forms

fair fairer fairest fairs fairing faired more fair most fair

Etymology

From Middle English fayr, feir, fager, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“suitable, fitting, nice”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten, place”). Cognate with Scots fayr, fare (“fair”), Danish feir, faver, fager (“fair, pretty”), Norwegian fager (“fair, pretty”), Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Umbrian pacer (“gracious, merciful, kind”), Slovak pekný (“good-looking, handsome, nice”). See also peace.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.