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• afar
  afar

  adverb

  from, at, or to a distance; far away (usually followed byoff ).
• Afar
  Afar

  noun

  a member of a nomadic Muslim people living in Eritrea, Djibouti, and northern Ethiopia.

afar

¹ American  

[uh-fahr] / əˈfɑr /

adverb

1. from, at, or to a distance; far away (usually followed byoff ).

   He saw the castle afar off.

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idioms

1. from afar, from a long way off.

   The princess saw him riding toward her from afar.

Afar ² American  

[ah-fahr] / ˈɑ fɑr /

noun

plural

Afars, Afara,

plural

Afar

1. a member of a nomadic Muslim people living in Eritrea, Djibouti, and northern Ethiopia.

2. the Northern Cushitic language spoken by the Afars.

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afar British  

/ əˈfɑː /

adverb

1. at, from, or to a great distance

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noun

1. a great distance (esp in the phrase from afar )

Etymology

Origin of afar

1125–75; Middle English a fer, on ferr; replacing Old English feorran. See a- ¹ (perhaps also a- ² for the meaning “from”), far

Explanation

If something's off at a distance, you can describe it as being afar. You might write a letter to your pen pal in Japan, and say, "This note comes to you from afar." Afar is a poetic and old-fashioned way to say "far away" or "distant." If your summer visitors have traveled from afar, they've come a long way to see you, and if your boyfriend moves to Australia, you might have to continue your relationship from afar. The word is a shortened form of the Old English of feor, in which of means "of" or "on," and feor is "far, remote, or distant."

Example Sentences

The newly reported fossil is a partial jaw dating to 2.6 million years ago, recovered from the Mille-Logya research area within the Afar region.

From Science Daily • Jan. 23, 2026

A newly published study in Nature describes the discovery of the first known Paranthropus fossil from Ethiopia's Afar region, uncovered about 1000 km north of where this ancient hominin had previously been found.

From Science Daily • Jan. 23, 2026

Native to Latin America, the prosopis shrub-like tree was first planted in Ethiopia's northeastern Afar region in the 1970s.

From Barron's • Nov. 12, 2025

During the Iraq war, McMaster thoroughly studied the history and theory of counterinsurgency warfare, then applied his learnings as regiment commander in the province of Tal Afar with remarkable success.

From Slate • Sep. 2, 2024

Afar from the bay came the sounds of bells and whistles.

From Gabriel Conroy by Harte, Bert