familiarity
Americannoun
plural
familiarities-
thorough knowledge or mastery of a thing, subject, etc.
-
the state of being familiar; friendly relationship; close acquaintance; intimacy.
-
an absence of ceremony and formality; informality.
- Synonyms:
- unconstraint
-
freedom of behavior justified only by the closest relationship; undue intimacy.
-
Often familiarities. an instance of such freedom, as in action or speech.
-
a sexual liberty or impropriety.
noun
-
reasonable knowledge or acquaintance, as with a subject or place
-
close acquaintanceship or intimacy
-
undue intimacy
-
(sometimes plural) an instance of unwarranted intimacy
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of familiarity
1350–1400; Middle English familiarite (< Anglo-French ) < Latin familiāritās intimacy. See familiar, -ity
Explanation
Familiarity is the state of knowing something very well. It's also a casual way of behaving. Your familiarity with your best friend means that you can say whatever you want around her. Familiarity is from the Latin word familiaritatem for "intimacy, friendship.” Familiarity is used in situations that people know well. A painter has a familiarity with brushes and canvas. When there’s familiarity with a task, people aren’t stressed, because they’ve done it before. This word also refers to a casual way of acting: if you hug someone, it shows familiarity. That kind of familiarity is the opposite of aloofness and formality.
Vocabulary lists containing familiarity
The Color of My Words
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Elijah of Buxton
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A Heart in a Body in the World
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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.
However, seen from a branding perspective, a colourful character can help breed familiarity.
From BBC • May 13, 2026
On paper, they overlap on a lot—especially on affordability, a centerpiece of his campaign—but McMorrow is more legible to party leadership: governing experience, institutional familiarity, stronger fundraising.
From Slate • Apr. 29, 2026
“Widow’s Bay” reaches deep into that bag of tropes, but it’s all part of the game; familiarity breeds anticipation, which breeds fear.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 28, 2026
And yet: The sheer number of YouTube and Spotify playlists of TV themes old and new suggests that our primal pop-culture brains long for some of the familiarity and comfort they once reliably triggered.
From Salon • Apr. 25, 2026
And so they spent hours there, watching the birds come and go, feeding them from their palms, exulting in the familiarity that allowed the birds to land on their arms and shoulders.
From "Zeitoun" by Dave Eggers
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.
