bare

¹ American  

[bair] / bɛər /

adjective

barer, comparative barest superlative

1. without covering or clothing; naked; nude.

   bare legs.

   Synonyms:

   undressed

2. without the usual furnishings, contents, etc..

   bare walls.

   Synonyms:

   barren, empty, stark, plain

3. open to view; unconcealed; undisguised.

   his bare dislike of neckties.

4. unadorned; bald; plain.

   the bare facts.

5. (of cloth) napless or threadbare.

6. scarcely or just sufficient; mere.

   the bare necessities of life.

7. Obsolete. with the head uncovered; bareheaded.

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verb (used with object)

bared, baring

1. to open to view; reveal or divulge.

   to bare one's arms; to bare damaging new facts.

   Synonyms:

   expose, uncover

bare ² American  

[bair] / bɛər /

verb

Archaic.

1. simple past tense of bear.

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bare ¹ British  

/ bɛə /

adjective

1. unclothed; exposed: used esp of a part of the body

2. without the natural, conventional, or usual covering or clothing

   a bare tree

3. lacking appropriate furnishings, etc

   a bare room

4. unembellished; simple

   the bare facts

5. (prenomial) just sufficient; mere

   he earned the bare minimum

6. without a weapon or tool

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verb

1. (tr) to make bare; uncover; reveal

bare ² British  

/ bɛə /

verb

1. archaic a past tense of bear 1

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Usage

What else does bare mean? Bare is UK slang for very or lots of.

Synonym Usage

Bare, stark, barren share the sense of lack or absence of something that might be expected. Bare, the least powerful in connotation of the three, means lack of expected or usual coverings, furnishings, or embellishments: bare floor, feet, head. Stark implies extreme severity or desolation and resultant bleakness or dreariness: a stark landscape; a stark, emotionless countenance. Barren carries a strong sense of sterility and oppressive dullness: barren fields; a barren relationship. See mere ¹.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• bareness
  noun
• barish
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Adjectives

• barer
  comparative
• barest
  superlative

Etymology

Origin of bare

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English bær; cognate with Old Frisian ber, Dutch baar, Old Saxon, Old High German, German bar, Old Norse berr; akin to Armenian bok “naked,” Lithuanian bãsas, Russian bosóĭ “barefoot”

Explanation

When you kick off your shoes to walk on the beach, you are enjoying the feeling of your bare feet in the warm sand. The adjective bare describes something or someone that is naked or unclothed. Bare can be used in many different ways: to describe the inside of your nearly-empty refrigerator, an uncarpeted floor, or your unadorned, sparsely decorated bedroom. The word bare can also be used as a verb meaning "to uncover or expose." When you reveal deep truths about yourself to another person — imagine confessing your passion for stamp collecting to a girl you like — you "bare your soul."

Example Sentences

"Without any specialized equipment to move the rocks, they used their bare hands to remove them until they could pull me out."

From Barron's • Jul. 4, 2026

The warm, cozy feeling of the home is in sharp contrast to the vacant, bare property that Mowry-Housley and Housley set their sights on as their next major project.

From MarketWatch • Jul. 2, 2026

And they need every dollar to fill out a bare cupboard.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 1, 2026

And Angèle is talented and well-known in Parisian beauty circles, but is beginning to feel that her canvas is the bare page, not a model’s bare face.

From Salon • Jun. 29, 2026

To his right was what looked like a throne carved out of stone surrounded by bare thornbushes.

From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova

Related Words

• arid
• barren
• bleak
• desolate
• empty
• stark
• vacant