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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

Afars, plural Afara, plural Afar plural

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 )

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Afar
  plural
• Afara
  plural
• Afars
  plural

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 study, titled "First Afar Paranthropus fossil expands the distribution of a versatile genus," was published in Nature in January 2026.

From Science Daily • Jan. 23, 2026

About 85 Ethiopian migrants were travelling along the eastern migration route when the lorry overturned in the town of Semera on Tuesday morning, a senior Afar official Mohammed Ali Biedo said in a statement.

From BBC • Jan. 6, 2026

At least 22 migrants have been killed and 65 others injured after a lorry they were travelling in overturned in Ethiopia's north-eastern Afar region, authorities say.

From BBC • Jan. 6, 2026

In 2009, a research team led by Arizona State University paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie uncovered eight bones from the foot of an ancient human ancestor in 3.4-million-year-old sediments in the Afar Rift of Ethiopia.

From Science Daily • Nov. 28, 2025

Afar off, in the east, the Seasons had opened the massive Gates of Cloud, and we had a glimpse of the old Olympian gods in conclave august, feasting upon ambrosial food.

From In Both Worlds by Holcombe, William Henry