Familiar

//fəˈmɪl.jɚ// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An attendant spirit, often in animal or demon form.

    "The witch’s familiar was a black cat."

  2. 2
    a spirit (usually in animal form) that acts as an assistant to a witch or wizard wordnet
  3. 3
    A member of one's family or household. obsolete
  4. 4
    a friend who is frequently in the company of another wordnet
  5. 5
    A member of a pope's or bishop's household.
Show 3 more definitions
  1. 6
    a person attached to the household of a high official (as a pope or bishop) who renders service in return for support wordnet
  2. 7
    A close friend. obsolete

    "[A] friend of mine, that finding a Receipt in Braſsivola, would needs take Hellebor in ſubſtance, & try it on his own perſon; but had not ſome of his familiars come to viſite him by chance, he had by his indiſcretion hazarded himſelfe; many ſuch I have obſerued."

  3. 8
    The officer of the Inquisition who arrested suspected people. historical
Adjective
  1. 1
    Known to one, or generally known; commonplace.

    "There’s a familiar face; that tune sounds familiar."

  2. 2
    Acquainted.

    "I'm quite familiar with this system; she's not familiar with manual gears."

  3. 3
    Intimate or friendly.

    "We are on familiar terms now; our neighbour is not familiar"

  4. 4
    Of or pertaining to a family; familial.

    "1822, Lord Byron, Werner familiar feuds"

Adjective
  1. 1
    having mutual interests or affections; of established friendship wordnet
  2. 2
    well known or easily recognized wordnet
  3. 3
    within normal everyday experience; common and ordinary; not strange wordnet
  4. 4
    (usually followed by ‘with’) well informed about or knowing thoroughly wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
acquaintedclosecommonconversanteverydayabreast

Example

More examples

"All of you are familiar with the truth of the story."

Etymology

From Middle English familiar, familier, from Latin familiāris (“pertaining to servants; pertaining to the household”). By surface analysis, family + -ar. Piecewise doublet of familial. Displaced native Old English hīwcūþ.

Related phrases

familiar fraudfamiliar strangeron familiar groundcomfortable knoweasily recognizeknown toliar inlike similarpersonal connectionrecognize knowseems memorableunderstanding something

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.