bare
1 Americanadjective
-
barer,
comparative
-
barest
superlative
-
without covering or clothing; naked; nude.
bare legs.
- Synonyms:
- undressed
-
without the usual furnishings, contents, etc..
bare walls.
-
open to view; unconcealed; undisguised.
his bare dislike of neckties.
-
unadorned; bald; plain.
the bare facts.
-
(of cloth) napless or threadbare.
-
scarcely or just sufficient; mere.
the bare necessities of life.
-
Obsolete. with the head uncovered; bareheaded.
verb (used with object)
verb
adjective
-
unclothed; exposed: used esp of a part of the body
-
without the natural, conventional, or usual covering or clothing
a bare tree
-
lacking appropriate furnishings, etc
a bare room
-
unembellished; simple
the bare facts
-
(prenomial) just sufficient; mere
he earned the bare minimum
-
without a weapon or tool
verb
verb
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
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
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."
Vocabulary lists containing bare
Commonly Confused Words, List 1
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"Mother to Son"
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Commonly Confused Words, List 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The anonymous satirical art activist group Secret Handshake is at it again — this time erecting a giant golden statue of a seated President Trump rubbing a bare foot.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2026
Laid bare in all of this is Mr. Woodward’s pomposity and his boundless conceit as a journalist who operates—as he sees it—in the eye of History.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 9, 2026
Mustafa al-Masri told the BBC that he and other rescuers had used their bare hands to dig the victims and survivors out of the sand and rubble.
From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026
The next day, the 45-year-old posts a video on Instagram, speaking outdoors in front of a bare wall.
From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026
Her arms were covered, except that the forearms were bare and blotchy.
From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott
The album’s indictments of America’s failures are no different from his songs like “Pink Houses,” but their messages are barer and nearly impossible to misinterpret.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2023
"All around me staff are leaving, staff are crying... many people are already voting with their feet and leaving. But of course that just strips the service even barer."
From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2022
Already, the security law has left Hong Kong’s digital spaces — which, during the 2019 protests, became raucous forums for organizing, cheerleading and criticizing the government — significantly barer than before.
From New York Times ● Sep. 17, 2021
A glacier can provide some protection, preserving piles of snow year-round that can even be deployed on barer ski pistes elsewhere on the slopes.
From Reuters ● Aug. 27, 2021
It is an odd feature of Cornwall that however bare and treeless some parts are, and they could hardly be barer in the Hebrides, yet the towns are generally warmly encompassed by trees.
From Cornwall by G. E. (Geraldine Edith) Mitton
The Hilltop Youth establish the barest of footholds on open land with temporary lodgings and, in many cases, later build homes and raise families.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
Greenspan exhibited a deft touch with financial markets, saying the barest minimum in his statements but seemingly always conveying what traders wanted to hear.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026
And survive they did, by the barest of margins, as Marcus Fraser's goal earned a 2-1 aggregate victory over Partick Thistle in the Premiership play-off final, a 1-0 home win on Monday sealing the job.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
Before the tray goes into the oven, I dust everything with the barest whisper of cardamom.
From Salon ● Dec. 16, 2025
It’s splendid, no question, but the thought you cannot escape is that you have to walk this view, and this is the barest fraction of what you will traverse before you’ve finished.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
The pages capture the inner thoughts of someone who found himself at the center of history, as if Oppenheimer grabbed a pen and bared his soul during the Manhattan Project.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
In a hotly-contested race, teeth were occasionally bared and there was some jostling for position in the closing sprint.
From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2025
Mitch’s cloddish rejection of her is all the more devastating after all that she has courageously bared to him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2025
Many of the women wept as Francis washed their feet, gently pouring water over one bared foot and patting it dry with a small towel.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 28, 2024
Rumpy bared his fangs at the smoking-platform and then looked up at Nhamo, who was watching from her shelter.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
As temperatures rise this summer, Japanese men are baring more leg at work than ever before.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
Dog owners are baring their teeth on social media after the European Union's top court ruled that pets are not passengers just baggage if they get lost in transit.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2025
By baring these women's realities - and their romantic desires - Latey cemented its place as the "content of its times", producer Metasebia Yoseph tells the BBC.
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2025
Bailey understands that baring so much comes with certain risks.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2024
She pushed up her sleeve, baring the peacock feather and mottled skin beneath it.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
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