What does familiarity mean?
Word: Familiarity
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Familiarity means a good understanding of something because you have seen or used it often; also a friendly, relaxed way of behaving with someone.
Synonyms: acquaintance, closeness, ease
Antonyms: unfamiliarity, ignorance, strangeness
How do you spell familiarity?
Syllables: fa - mil - i - ar - i - ty
Tricky part: The i after the l is barely heard, so it is easy to drop (familarity). The ending is ity, not ety.
Watch out for: familarity, familiarty, familiarety
Memory tip: Say the word and listen for the quiet ee sound before ar: that sound is the i that so many pupils leave out.
Idioms and Phrases
- familiarity breeds contempt: Knowing someone or something too well can make you stop respecting or noticing it. Example: "When the twins stopped listening to their favourite uncle's advice, Grandma reminded them that familiarity breeds contempt."
Familiarity in a sentence
Example 1: Her familiarity with the London Underground map helped the visitors reach the Tower of London quickly.
Example 2: Years of practice gave him complete familiarity with every key on the harmonium.
Example 3: The new teacher spoke with a warm familiarity that put the shy students at ease.
Fun Fact
The word goes back to Latin familia, the household, which also gave English the word family. At first the idea was of something as well known to you as your own home.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Makeup
Only one of these words takes the suffix -ity to make a real noun. Choose it:
-ity
a) joyful
b) careful
c) familiar
d) honest
Show answer
c) familiar. Familiar + ity gives familiarity; careful and joyful take ness, and honest becomes honesty.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
fammiliarity
a) i
b) a
c) l
d) m
Show answer
d) m. Only one m follows the fa, just as in family.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word familiarity as used in the sentence:
Thomas's familiarity with old coins made him the obvious choice to sort the museum's new collection.
a) knowledge
b) dislike
c) patience
d) curiosity
Show answer
a) knowledge. Here familiarity means knowing a subject well, which is knowledge; curiosity is only wanting to know.
Mingle-Mangle
Rearrange the jumbled letters in the sentence to form the right word:
The tourists' lack of yitralaimif with the local language made shopping slow.
a) familiarity
b) familiarise
c) familiarly
d) similarity
Show answer
a) familiarity. Similarity lacks the f, familiarise needs an s and an e, and familiarly has no t, so only familiarity uses every letter.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A tourist who shows familiarity with Jaipur's lanes ____.
a) knows their way around them
b) dislikes walking in them
c) has never seen them
d) has only seen them on a map
Show answer
a) knows their way around them
2. Treating your new class teacher with too much familiarity means being ____.
a) too nervous to ask her anything
b) too casual and informal with her
c) too quiet and shy with her
d) too formal and stiff with her
Show answer
b) too casual and informal with her
