From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Rarity \Rar"i*ty\ (r[a^]r"[i^]*t[y^]; 277), noun; pl. {Rarities} (r[a^]r"[i^]*t[i^]z). [L. raritas: cf. F. raret['e]. See {Rare}.]
1. The quality or state of being rare; rareness; thinness; as, the rarity (contrasted with the density) of gases.
2. That which is rare; an uncommon thing; a thing valued for its scarcity.
I saw three rarities of different kinds, which pleased me more than any other shows in the place. --Addison.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: noteworthy scarcity [syn: {rareness}, {infrequency}]
2: a rarified quality; "the tenuity of the upper atmosphere" [syn: {tenuity}, {low density}]
3: something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting [syn: {curio}, {curiosity}, {oddity}, {oddment}, {peculiarity}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
109 Moby Thesaurus words for "rarity": abnormality, airiness, airy texture, amazement, anomaly, astonishing thing, astonishment, attenuation, chinchiness, chintziness, conversation piece, curio, curiosity, dearth, delicacy, diaphanousness, dilutedness, dilution, ethereality, exception, exceptionality, exiguity, exility, extraordinariness, fabulousness, fewness, find, fineness, flimsiness, frailty, gauziness, gazingstock, gossameriness, gracility, impossibility, improbability, inconceivability, incredibility, increditability, infrequence, infrequency, insubstantiality, laciness, lightness, marvel, marvelment, marvelousness, meagerness, miracle, miserliness, mistiness, museum piece, mythicalness, niggardliness, nonesuch, occasionalness, oddity, paperiness, paucity, phenomenon, poverty, prodigiosity, prodigiousness, prodigy, quite a thing, rareness, remarkableness, restrictedness, scant sufficiency, scantiness, scarceness, scarcity, scrimpiness, seldomness, sensation, sight, skimpiness, slenderness, slightness, slimness, slowness, smallness, something else, sparseness, sparsity, spectacle, stinginess, strange thing, stringency, stunner, stupendousness, subtility, tenuity, thinness, tightness, treasure, uncommonness, unfrequentness, uniqueness, unordinariness, unusualness, unwontedness, vagueness, wateriness, weakness, wispiness, wonder, wonderful thing, wonderment
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