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say it: fuh-MI-lyur
familiar is an adjective and noun meaning "well known or easily recognized". It is pronounced /fəˈmɪljɚ/ — fuh-MI-lyur. It carries 7 recorded senses.
well known or easily recognized
“a familiar figure”
“familiar songs”
“familiar guests”
within normal everyday experience; common and ordinary; not strange
“familiar ordinary objects found in every home”
“a familiar everyday scene”
“a familiar excuse”
“a day like any other filled with familiar duties and experiences”
(usually followed by `with') well informed about or knowing thoroughly
“conversant with business trends”
“familiar with the complex machinery”
“he was familiar with those roads”
a person attached to the household of a high official (as a pope or bishop) who renders service in return for support
a spirit (usually in animal form) that acts as an assistant to a witch or wizard
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for familiar come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.