rather

1. 1.

   on the contrary

   “rather than disappoint the children, he did two quick tricks before he left”

   “he didn't call; rather (or instead), he wrote her a letter”

   “used English terms instead of Latin ones”

   Synonymsinstead
2. 2.

   to some (great or small) extent

   “it was rather cold”

   “the party was rather nice”

   “the knife is rather dull”

   “I rather regret that I cannot attend”

   “He's rather good at playing the cello”

   “he is kind of shy”

   Synonymskind ofkindasort of
3. 3.

   more readily or willingly

   “clean it well, preferably with warm water”

   “I'd rather be in Philadelphia”

   “I'd sooner die than give up”

   Synonymspreferablysooner
4. 4.

   to a degree (not used with a negative)

   “quite tasty”

   “quite soon”

   “quite ill”

   “quite rich”

   Synonymsquite

Questions about rather

What does rather mean?

rather means "on the contrary". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in rather?

rather has 2 syllables: rat-her. The stress falls on "rat". In IPA it is /ˈɹæðɚ/.

What is another word for rather?

Close synonyms include instead, kind of, kinda, sort of, preferably. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is rather a common word?

rather is banded "Core" — among the few thousand words that carry most english. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.