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:
It appears that most of those terrestrial planets don't -- they're just bare rock.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026
No one sits staring mournfully at the bare lacquered table.
From Salon ● Oct. 7, 2026
The wars in Iran and Ukraine have laid bare the fragility of energy supply chains, and Greece is positioning itself to become a key hub in southeastern Europe for natural gas transport.
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
“I call it accountability, and long overdue, and frankly, the bare minimum.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
The rocks felt ice-cold and slippery under Torak’s bare feet.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
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
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
Rather than making collective progress on dealing with the virus, the contours of our inability to do so are being laid, somehow, barer.
From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2020
Thereafter the country becomes barer and grimmer, and the fields for the most part are uncultivated—in itself a remarkable thing in France.
From War Letters of a Public-School Boy by Henry Paul Mainwaring Jones
If this familiar-looking advice seems like the barest minimum in modern cybersecurity hygiene, that’s because it is.
From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2026
Pearl diving often relied on the barest necessities: a noseclip, leather finger covers and a basket to gather oysters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 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
I don’t have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
“Jameson never bared his teeth, growled at either officer, or otherwise displayed any attempt whatsoever to attack,” the lawsuit stated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 5, 2026
Zohran Mamdani bared his arm in an act of love.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 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
Supermodel Christie Brinkley bared all Wednesday — in her face, that is — announcing her skin cancer diagnosis in a graphic Instagram post that doubled as a PSA.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 14, 2024
Cluny the Scourge bared his fangs, grinning wickedly into the dark.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
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 contrast, A Little More finds Sheeran baring his teeth.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2025
Murray wasn’t worried about baring his abs for the film — it was the dancing that terrified him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 20, 2024
Ignatius bellowed, baring a tan fang or two.
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
