familiarity
Americannoun
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thorough knowledge or mastery of a thing, subject, etc.
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the state of being familiar; friendly relationship; close acquaintance; intimacy.
-
an absence of ceremony and formality; informality.
- Synonyms:
- unconstraint
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freedom of behavior justified only by the closest relationship; undue intimacy.
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Often familiarities. an instance of such freedom, as in action or speech.
-
a sexual liberty or impropriety.
noun
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reasonable knowledge or acquaintance, as with a subject or place
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close acquaintanceship or intimacy
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undue intimacy
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(sometimes plural) an instance of unwarranted intimacy
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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.
See Examples For:
"There's more familiarity than there was even a year ago," he said, adding that this is freeing up creative teams to focus more on story and style.
From Barron's ● Jul. 22, 2026
Mitchell’s familiarity with lobbying might also come from experience, with Mitchell having interned at a lobbying firm, according to both Radio Iowa and his biography at Future Caucus, a group that supports young politicians.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
Some of the popularity of hybrids is rooted in familiarity.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
It's a city Scotland fans now know with great familiarity and fondness.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026
Night had come quickly, and Cole scanned the dark shadows around him, sensing a vague familiarity.
From "Touching Spirit Bear" by Ben Mikaelsen
It is not, mercifully, a reboot of the original and iconic series starring Andy Griffith, but fans of that “Matlock” will find tonal familiarities in this one.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2024
The courts in the early British colonies of Connecticut and New Haven ultimately indicted at least 34 women and men for the crimes of witchcraft and familiarities with the devil.
From Washington Times ● May 26, 2023
A virtuoso of intimacy, Hamaguchi has a thing for cars or, more specifically, the familiarities their tight spaces create.
From New York Times ● Nov. 24, 2021
Yet in “Jobe’z World” many of the departures from daily familiarities are minor, fussy, and stepwise rather than daringly disjunctive.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 11, 2019
Colors weren’t true either, but rather a vague assortment of shaded pastels that indicated not so much color as faded familiarities.
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
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.
