familiar1 adjectivefamiliar2 noun
familiarfa‧mil‧i‧ar1 /fəˈmɪliə $ -ər/ ●●○ S3 W2 adjective 
WORD ORIGINfamiliar
Origin:
1200-1300 Old French familier, from Latin familia; ➔ FAMILYEXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Gibson's name is familiar -- what else did he write?
- He scanned the audience, searching for a familiar face.
- I don't like it when men I've just met are too familiar.
- It's nice to see a familiar face - I was afraid I wouldn't know anyone here.
- It was a relief to be back in the familiar surroundings of my hometown.
- It was good to be back in familiar surroundings.
- Kylie soon became a familiar figure at some of London's top fashion stores.
- Mimicking the President's familiar accent, DJ Rogers told his listeners that aliens had invaded.
- Robbie got that familiar goofy expression on his face as I told him the story.
- Sanders has an easy, familiar style of writing.
- She came up to me and started talking in such a familiar way that I thought I must have met her before.
- She was singing along to a tune on the radio that sounded vaguely familiar.
- That's a familiar tune - what is it?
- That girl looks familiar. I'm sure I've met her before.
- That morning she heard an old familiar voice on the kitchen radio.
- The first track on the album will be instantly familiar to Billie Holliday fans.
- The giant cross has become a familiar landmark to generations of San Franciscans.
- The local policeman is now a familiar figure in our school.
- The man seated at the next table looked faintly familiar.
- This kind of problem will be familiar to many married couples.
- By contrast, the memories of people my age are spookily familiar.
- By using and learning about the hardware and software, developing country professionals will become familiar with a variety of modern technologies.
- From the darkness between the semi-detached houses across the street came the familiar figure of Jack Stone.
- If customers' needs are to be recognized and met, designers and engineers must be familiar with sales and marketing.
- Its strange shape has become familiar to us.
- Not only will that skill help your re sume, it will make you familiar with on-line job recruiting.
- Those familiar with Vegetarian Times already know how accessible the recipes are.
THESAURUS
to have a good knowledge or understanding of something, because you have used it, read about it etc before: · Before the interview, make sure you are familiar with the company’s main products.· It will take a little while to become familiar with the new software.
(also be accustomed to something formal) to have experienced something before, so that it no longer seems surprising, difficult, strange etc: · I’m used to eating spicy food.· Jay found the job hard to begin with, but he soon got used to it.· Consumers have grown accustomed (=become accustomed)to having a lot of choice.· Our staff are accustomed to dealing with the needs of foreign clients.
to feel happy and confident about doing or using something, especially because you have had a lot of practice: · Tom’s lived in Moscow for 20 years and he’s completely at home with the language.· It takes a few weeks for people to feel at home with the system.
to feel relaxed and not worried about doing something or being with someone: · We’re all becoming increasingly comfortable with buying things online.· The activities are intended to help new students feel more comfortable with each other..
Longman Language Activatorsomething that you are used to a familiar place, idea, situation etc is one that you are used to and that you know well: · It was good to be back in familiar surroundings.· We heard the familiar sound of coyotes in the distance.familiar to: · This kind of problem will be familiar to many married couples.old familiar: · That morning she heard an old familiar voice on the kitchen radio.that familiar something: · Robbie got that familiar goofy expression on his face as I told him the story.
too friendly in a way that is unpleasant talking to someone as if you know them very well although in fact you do not, especially in a way that people think is unpleasant or offensive: · I don't like it when men I've just met are too familiar.· She came up to me and started talking in such a familiar way that I thought I must have met her before.
informal someone who is smarmy behaves in a very friendly way but seems completely insincere: · He's been criticized for his smarmy behavior when interviewing celebrities.· a slick, smarmy public relations officer· He denies calling the Prime Minister "smarmy".
British if someone is over-friendly , they are too friendly in a way that is unpleasant, for example standing or sitting too close to you: · A man in the pub was a little over-friendly, so I left early.
formal someone who is obsequious always tries too hard to be friendly and helpful, and always agrees with what other people say, in a way that people think is very annoying: · The waiter was polite and efficient, but not obsequious.· All this obsequious praise for his actions is enough to make most normal people sick.
informal someone who is slimy is too friendly and praises people too much in a way that is clearly dishonest and makes you think they are just trying to get an advantage for themselves: · What a slimy, horrible man.· They had the usual slimy politician on TV talking about "the innate good sense of the voters".
to not know a place, film or book etc to know little or nothing about a subject, book, play etc because you have not studied it, read it, or seen it: · I'm afraid I'm not familiar with Professor Vaughan's work.· For those of you who may not be familiar with the play I'll give a brief summary of the plot.· It is difficult for anyone unfamiliar with astronomy to grasp the concept of the Black Hole.
if someone or something is unfamiliar to you, you do not know them because you have never seen, heard, or experienced them before: · The voice on the phone sounded unfamiliar.· It took Steven some time to get used to his unfamiliar surroundings.unfamiliar to: · The song is in Russian, a language unfamiliar to many singers.
easy to recognize someone or something that is familiar is easy to recognize, because you have seen or heard them many times before: · Gibson's name is familiar -- what else did he write?· He scanned the audience, searching for a familiar face.· Mimicking the President's familiar accent, DJ Rogers told his listeners that aliens had invaded.familiar to: · The first track on the album will be instantly familiar to Billie Holliday fans.· The giant cross has become a familiar landmark to generations of San Franciscans. look/sound/feel etc familiar: · That girl looks familiar. I'm sure I've met her before.a familiar figure (=someone who is often seen in a particular place and therefore is familiar to the people there): · Kylie soon became a familiar figure at some of London's top fashion stores.a familiar face (=someone you have met before): · It's nice to see a familiar face - I was afraid I wouldn't know anyone here.· The local policeman is now a familiar figure in our school.faintly/vaguely familiar (=only slightly familiar, so that you are not quite sure whether you know them or not): · The man seated at the next table looked faintly familiar.· She was singing along to a tune on the radio that sounded vaguely familiar.
also recognisable British if something is recognizable , it is easy to recognize, for example because it has a particular sound or appearance: · No recognizable remains of Minoan ships have ever been found until now.· Many mental illnesses are only recognizable after many careful weeks spent talking to the patient.· Muffled noises were coming from the room, the only recognizable sound being her daughter's laughter.recognizable as: · an animal so thin and weak it was barely recognizable as a horse· The body was so badly burned it was no longer recognizable as a human being.recognizable by: · The staff are easily recognisable by their pale green uniforms.easily/instantly/immediately recognizable: · Macy has an instantly recognizable voice.· On the outskirts of the town, we saw a building that was immediately recognizable as a prison.
impossible not to recognize: · Shots rang out, and we heard the unmistakable sound of a human scream.· When an envelope arrived bearing Dad's unmistakable handwriting, I knew something must be wrong. · Her accent was unmistakable -- Southern Ireland, probably West coast.· He'd started burning incense to disguise the unmistakable odour of marijuana coming from his bedroom.
spoken use this to say that someone or something is easy to recognize: · I turned round -- there was no mistaking that voice -- it was Billie.· There's no mistaking this as anything but a Japanese car.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY
The voice on the phone sounded familiar. It was a relief to be back in familiar surroundings. Beggars on the street are becoming a familiar sight. This kind of situation was all too familiar (=very familiar) to John. Her face seems vaguely familiar, but I can’t quite place her.COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
The voice on the phone sounded familiar. It was a relief to be back in familiar surroundings. Beggars on the street are becoming a familiar sight. This kind of situation was all too familiar (=very familiar) to John. Her face seems vaguely familiar, but I can’t quite place her. (=one that you have heard many times)· A lack of good public transport is a familiar complaint.
(=one that a lot of people have)· Deciding whether to put an elderly parent in a nursing home is a common dilemma.
(=a subject etc that you know something about) In his latest book, McManus returns to more familiar ground.
In his latest book, McManus returns to more familiar ground.· It was so dark we could not see any familiar landmarks.
· Cats and dogs like a familiar routine.
· Suddenly she heard the familiar sound of the key being turned in the front door.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· She began to feel vaguely familiar with the names of drinks and their prices.· His voice, warm and slightly drunk, sounded vaguely familiar.· Although the old Victorian building with its spine of hutted wards was a vaguely familiar place, it was by no means home.· The voice on the other end of the line was vaguely familiar.· The young man had seemed vaguely familiar.· Her face was vaguely familiar, and Floyd suddenly became aware that the Administrator was looking at him with a quizzical smile.· The other was of a man, plumpish and vaguely familiar.
NOUN· He voiced their torment at knowing their children would be medically examined without consent and without any familiar face being present.· He glanced at Rock Hardy, finding comfort in the familiar face. 5.03 already!· It therefore seems that he ascribes this voice to a visually familiar face.· It took D'Arcy a few seconds to connect the familiar face in the unfamiliar surroundings.· He had shunned the opposition, reshuffled his government with familiar faces and retained the prime minister many wanted out.· It's always nice to see a friendly familiar face.· He turned the volume up as loud as it would go and stared at the familiar faces on the screen.
· From the darkness between the semi-detached houses across the street came the familiar figure of Jack Stone.· When he opened the door he saw a familiar figure in the street.· A familiar figure got out of the bus and walked straight to the cab rank.· No familiar figure validates human life in these photographs.· This bluff businessman was a familiar figure to most of the small audience.· The podium guest is a familiar figure, Libor Pesek, who bowed in the hall in 1992 and returned last season.· He saw a familiar figure to his right.· She couldn't seem to drag her eyes away from his familiar figure.
· Certainly from the moment you land you realise that you are no longer on familiar ground.· To me this was familiar ground.· Here we may move, for the child, even further away from familiar ground.· For an instant the familiar grounds glare and tremble, the prisoner rages at his bars.· It was familiar ground too for Fonda and Hopper - who were already good friends.· Work and health matters suffer in a return to familiar ground.· Mr Ciampi will be on more familiar ground in his economic policies.
· A familiar look of disappointment crosses her face.· He has a face people like, an oddly familiar look.· It makes the familiar look sparklingly new.· Life often has that familiar look in its eyes.
· Unexpected, it was like a surprise confrontation, and for a moment she could only stare blindly at the familiar name.· Have him repeat the familiar name.· He recognised familiar names and faces from all parties, and also noticed that everybody carried copies of his Dublin paper.· One by one the familiar names and faces of the independence period were passing from the political picture.· They include many familiar names such as the Halifax, the Woolwich and the Nationwide Anglia.· The closest sorts of group are called keiretsu, and have familiar names like Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and so on.· Below the breathing trees a thousand lost talents dream into dust; decay into largely familiar names for a stranger's bouquet.· During the king's absence on his romantic mission, a bitterly familiar name was involved in strange moves against his person.
· Just as the current crisis has a distinctly familiar ring to it, so too do the solutions being offered.· These and other questions have a familiar ring because versions of these same questions are posted in various places on the walls.· If such a three-pronged assault on the ailing Soviet economy has a familiar ring to it, that is hardly surprising.· We pull out some coins and drop them on to the counter, where they make, no doubt, a familiar ring.· Once a few have been mastered it is surprising how quickly the most ponderous sounding scientific name acquires a familiar ring.· Some findings will have a familiar ring in the West.· It is a puzzle with a familiar ring to it.· But the build-up to it had a familiar ring about it for Dave.
· They were local lave-net fisherman, a familiar sight in this part of the county.· Ravage, because there was so much of it, became a familiar sight, almost comfortable.· Home-Made Angels was inspired by the familiar sight of hot-air balloons in the skies above Bristol.· It was already a familiar sight from the windows of the classroom block of the Entally Convent.· His combination of business suits and cowboy boots quickly became a familiar sight in San Diego and Tijuana.· Rose Hill, already a familiar sight around Milton Keynes, may soon be recognised worldwide.· As you travel eastward the route joins the River Almond where dippers and herons are familiar sights.
· They're a familiar sound - police, ambulance, fire engine; electronic donkeys braying.· And as Gargy Patel reports, it's also provided one the city's most familiar sounds.· It was a familiar sound to her.· As the mail train thundered past and disappeared into the distance he heard the familiar sound of footsteps.· Houses have weird silhouettes in the soft rain, noises come through open windows, television voices, familiar sound tracks.· The familiar sounds brought Jehan to a sense of the place and the time.· It had become a familiar sound over the last couple of days.· Yet other problems arise from familiar sound, structures or words being used in unfamiliar combinations, or for unfamiliar purposes.
· Now he was in the wilderness, separated from friend and foe alike and far from familiar surroundings.· All children will tend to suffer from separation from their parents, siblings and familiar surroundings.· He took in the familiar surroundings with a refreshed, amused eye.· And you can have the course of vaccinations in the familiar surroundings of your general practitioner's surgery.· The busy executive will walk here, though she would use her car for far shorter journeys in more familiar surroundings.
· The social work was familiar territory.· Camp Holloway at Pleiku was familiar territory.· I was now in more familiar territory.· Since Michelangelo was an ardent antiquarian, all this will have been familiar territory.· They were travelling over familiar territory and life on the march had slipped into a routine.· All this was familiar territory but as films became more ambitious so there emerged the possibility of fuller social statement.· After a while, the cat gives up and returns to its familiar territory.
· Belinda's eyes flew open at the sound of the familiar voice.· He needed a familiar voice to calm him down.· Sometimes when the wind rattles through the awning we imagine the traces of strong, familiar voices calling our names.· But then I knew right away that it was a familiar voice, calling a familiar version of my name.· Here was an old, familiar voice, the voice of youthful friendship.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRYPHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
- Are you familiar with his books?
- And you took too much for granted by assuming your audience was familiar with sponges.
- Here, however, all similarity between the piece Lucien was familiar with and what he saw being performed before him ended.
- Most permit-seekers are middle-aged men who already are familiar with guns, Chelius said.
- Nevertheless it is a mistake to think that the only literary modes which exist are those one period is familiar with.
- Now consider that imaginary train of mine you are familiar with, one light-second long.
- Surely they must be familiar with his writing?
- Taku Shanskan is familiar with my spirit and when I die I will go with him.
- That was the nature of the oppression and the sense of being dominated which we all were familiar with.
- He's on familiar terms with all the teachers.
- Some findings will have a familiar ring in the West.
- The terrors which Mr Cash expresses about our future in the community have a familiar ring about them.
- These and other questions have a familiar ring because versions of these same questions are posted in various places on the walls.
WORD FAMILYnounfamiliarity ≠ unfamiliarityfamilyfamiliarizationadjectivefamiliar ≠ unfamiliarfamilialverbfamiliarizeadverbfamiliarly
1someone or something that is familiar is well-known to you and easy to recognize: a familiar tunelook/sound familiar The voice on the phone sounded familiar.be familiar to somebody The signs of drug addiction are familiar to most doctors. It was a relief to be back in familiar surroundings. Beggars on the street are becoming a familiar sight. This kind of situation was all too familiar (=very familiar) to John. Her face seems vaguely familiar, but I can’t quite place her.RegisterIn everyday English, people often say that they know something rather than saying it is familiar: The name of the restaurant was not familiar to me. ➔ I didn't know the name of the restaurant.2be familiar with something to have a good knowledge or understanding of something: Are you familiar with this type of machine? I’m not familiar with her poetry.3be on familiar terms with somebody to know someone well and be able to talk to them in an informal way: He’s on familiar terms with all the teachers.4talking to someone as if you know them well although you do notfamiliar with I thought he was being a bit familiar with my wife.5informal and friendly in speech, writing etc: The novel is written in an easy familiar style. → familiarlyTHESAURUSbe familiar with something to have a good knowledge or understanding of something, because you have used it, read about it etc before: · Before the interview, make sure you are familiar with the company’s main products.· It will take a little while to become familiar with the new software.be used to something (also be accustomed to something formal) to have experienced something before, so that it no longer seems surprising, difficult, strange etc: · I’m used to eating spicy food.· Jay found the job hard to begin with, but he soon got used to it.· Consumers have grown accustomed (=become accustomed)to having a lot of choice.· Our staff are accustomed to dealing with the needs of foreign clients.be at home with something to feel happy and confident about doing or using something, especially because you have had a lot of practice: · Tom’s lived in Moscow for 20 years and he’s completely at home with the language.· It takes a few weeks for people to feel at home with the system.be comfortable with something/somebody to feel relaxed and not worried about doing something or being with someone: · We’re all becoming increasingly comfortable with buying things online.· The activities are intended to help new students feel more comfortable with each other..familiar1 adjectivefamiliar2 noun
familiarfamiliar2 noun [countable] EXAMPLES FROM THE CORPUS
- Greenfly, whitefly, sawfly are his familiars.
- He was not the conventional stuff of which familiars were made, of course.
- Some will eventually feel the loneliness as passage, as the rending of the familiar that is part of coming of age.
- Virtually every adult man, and a few older women, possess familiars.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
(=one that you have heard many times)· A lack of good public transport is a familiar complaint.
(=one that a lot of people have)· Deciding whether to put an elderly parent in a nursing home is a common dilemma.
(=a subject etc that you know something about) In his latest book, McManus returns to more familiar ground.
In his latest book, McManus returns to more familiar ground.· It was so dark we could not see any familiar landmarks.
· Cats and dogs like a familiar routine.
· Suddenly she heard the familiar sound of the key being turned in the front door.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a cat or other animal that lives with a witch and has magical powers- Some findings will have a familiar ring in the West.
- The terrors which Mr Cash expresses about our future in the community have a familiar ring about them.
- These and other questions have a familiar ring because versions of these same questions are posted in various places on the walls.