Rarity
noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A measure of the scarcity of an object.
- 2 something unusual — perhaps worthy of collecting wordnet
- 3 Thinness; the property of having low density
"Only the increasing rarity bothered him, and he thought that perhaps it was this which had turned the heads of other travellers and excited those absurd tales of night-gaunts whereby they explained the loss of such climbers as fell from these perilous paths."
- 4 a rarified quality wordnet
- 5 A rare object.
"Plant breeding is always a numbers game.[…]In addition, we are looking for rare alleles, so the more plants we try, the better. These rarities may be new mutations, or they can be existing ones that are neutral—or are even selected against—in a wild population. A good example is mutations that disrupt seed dispersal, leaving the seeds on the heads long after they are ripe."
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- 6 noteworthy scarcity wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Great as is the sensuous beauty of gems, their rarity and price adds an expression of distinction to them, which they would never have if they were cheap."
Etymology
From rare + -ity, borrowed from Middle French rarité, from Latin rāritās; compare French rareté. See also rare.
Related phrases
More for "rarity"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.