overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

fair.

Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈfɛə/Received-Pronunciation[ˈfɛə̯]Received-Pronunciation[ˈfɛː]Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɛː/British, Southern, Standard
  1. Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality.

    archaic · literary
    Monday's child is fair of face.
    There was once a knight who wooed a fair young maid.
  2. Unblemished (figuratively or literally); clean and pure; innocent.

    one's fair name
    After scratching out and replacing various words in the manuscript, he scribed a fair copy to send to the publisher.
  3. Light in color, pale, particularly with regard to skin tone but also referring to blond and red hair.

    She had fair hair and blue eyes.
  4. Just.

    He must be given a fair trial.
  5. Adequate, reasonable, or decent, but not excellent.

    Their performance has been only fair.
    The patient was in a fair condition after some treatment.
  6. Favorable to a ship's course.

  7. Favorable, pleasant.

    The weather was fair today.
  8. Favorable, pleasant. Not overcast; cloudless; clear.

    a fair sky
  9. Favorable, pleasant. Free from obstacles or hindrances; unobstructed; unencumbered; open; direct; said of a road, passage, etc.

    a fair mark;  in fair sight;  a fair view
  10. Without sudden change of direction or curvature; smooth; flowing; said of the figure of a vessel, and of surfaces, water lines, and other lines.

  11. Between the baselines.

  12. Taken direct from an opponent's foot, without the ball touching the ground or another player.

  13. Not a no ball.

  14. Of a coin or die, having equal chance of landing on any side, unbiased.

    A fair coin has a 50% chance of landing on heads.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fayr, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“appropriate, fitting, nice, suitable”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to attach, join; agreement, settlement”). Cognates Cognate with Old High German and Old Saxon fagar (“beautiful, fair”), Danish fager, favr (“fair, pretty, wonderful”), Faroese and Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌲𐍂𐍃 (fagrs, “fair, proper”), Estonian vapper (“brave, courageous”), Finnish vauras (“substantial, wealthy”); also Latin pāx (“peace; ease, quiet, rest”), Umbrian pase (“peace”), Belarusian пе́кны (pjékny, “beautiful”), Czech pěkný (“nice; pretty”), Polish piekny, piękny (“beautiful; admirable, praiseworthy”), Slovak pekný (“nice; pretty”), Sanskrit पाश॑ (pā́śa, “bond, cord, noose; nature, outer world; border, edge, selvage”). See also peace.

noun/ˈfɛə/Received-Pronunciation[ˈfɛə̯]Received-Pronunciation[ˈfɛː]Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɛː/British, Southern, Standard
  1. Something which is fair (in various senses of the adjective).

    When will we learn to distinguish between the fair and the foul?
  2. A woman, a member of the ‘fair sex’; also as a collective singular, women.

    obsolete
  3. Fairness, beauty.

    obsolete
  4. A fair woman; a sweetheart.

  5. Good fortune; good luck.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fayr, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“appropriate, fitting, nice, suitable”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to attach, join; agreement, settlement”). Cognates Cognate with Old High German and Old Saxon fagar (“beautiful, fair”), Danish fager, favr (“fair, pretty, wonderful”), Faroese and Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌲𐍂𐍃 (fagrs, “fair, proper”), Estonian vapper (“brave, courageous”), Finnish vauras (“substantial, wealthy”); also Latin pāx (“peace; ease, quiet, rest”), Umbrian pase (“peace”), Belarusian пе́кны (pjékny, “beautiful”), Czech pěkný (“nice; pretty”), Polish piekny, piękny (“beautiful; admirable, praiseworthy”), Slovak pekný (“nice; pretty”), Sanskrit पाश॑ (pā́śa, “bond, cord, noose; nature, outer world; border, edge, selvage”). See also peace.

verb/ˈfɛə/Received-Pronunciation[ˈfɛə̯]Received-Pronunciation[ˈfɛː]Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɛː/British, Southern, Standard
  1. To smoothen or even a surface (especially a connection or junction on a surface).

    transitive
  2. To bring into perfect alignment (especially about rivet holes when connecting structural members).

    transitive
  3. To make an animation smooth, removing any jerkiness.

    transitive
  4. To construct or design with the aim of producing a smooth outline or reducing air drag or water resistance.

    transitive
  5. To make fair or beautiful.

    obsolete · transitive
  6. To become fair (favorable, not stormy).

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fayr, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“appropriate, fitting, nice, suitable”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to attach, join; agreement, settlement”). Cognates Cognate with Old High German and Old Saxon fagar (“beautiful, fair”), Danish fager, favr (“fair, pretty, wonderful”), Faroese and Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌲𐍂𐍃 (fagrs, “fair, proper”), Estonian vapper (“brave, courageous”), Finnish vauras (“substantial, wealthy”); also Latin pāx (“peace; ease, quiet, rest”), Umbrian pase (“peace”), Belarusian пе́кны (pjékny, “beautiful”), Czech pěkný (“nice; pretty”), Polish piekny, piękny (“beautiful; admirable, praiseworthy”), Slovak pekný (“nice; pretty”), Sanskrit पाश॑ (pā́śa, “bond, cord, noose; nature, outer world; border, edge, selvage”). See also peace.

adv/ˈfɛə/Received-Pronunciation[ˈfɛə̯]Received-Pronunciation[ˈfɛː]Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɛː/British, Southern, Standard
  1. Clearly, openly, frankly, civilly, honestly, favorably, auspiciously, agreeably.

  2. Almost; to a great extent but not literally.

    Ireland
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fayr, from Old English fæġer (“beautiful”), from Proto-West Germanic *fagr, from Proto-Germanic *fagraz (“appropriate, fitting, nice, suitable”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to attach, join; agreement, settlement”). Cognates Cognate with Old High German and Old Saxon fagar (“beautiful, fair”), Danish fager, favr (“fair, pretty, wonderful”), Faroese and Icelandic fagur (“beautiful, fair”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fager (“fair, pretty”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌲𐍂𐍃 (fagrs, “fair, proper”), Estonian vapper (“brave, courageous”), Finnish vauras (“substantial, wealthy”); also Latin pāx (“peace; ease, quiet, rest”), Umbrian pase (“peace”), Belarusian пе́кны (pjékny, “beautiful”), Czech pěkný (“nice; pretty”), Polish piekny, piękny (“beautiful; admirable, praiseworthy”), Slovak pekný (“nice; pretty”), Sanskrit पाश॑ (pā́śa, “bond, cord, noose; nature, outer world; border, edge, selvage”). See also peace.

noun/ˈfɛə/Received-Pronunciation[ˈfɛə̯]Received-Pronunciation[ˈfɛː]Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɛː/British, Southern, Standard
  1. A community gathering to celebrate and exhibit local achievements.

  2. An event for public entertainment and trade, a market.

  3. An event for professionals in a trade to learn of new products and do business, a trade fair.

  4. A travelling amusement park (called a funfair in British English and a (travelling) carnival in US English).

    The whole town was at the fair, young and old, rich and poor.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English feyre, from Old French foire, from Latin fēriae.

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

fair has 4 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

fair studiofair workshello, fair

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.