Familiar means well-known through experience or repeated contact. When something is familiar to you, you recognize it easily because you've encountered it many times before. The smell of your grandmother's kitchen might be familiar. Your best friend's laugh is familiar. The route you walk to school every day becomes so familiar that you could probably do it with your eyes closed.

You can feel a connection to the idea of family: familiar things often feel comfortable and safe, like family does. When you read a familiar book for the tenth time, you know what's coming next, and that knowledge can bring comfort. When you visit a familiar place, you don't feel lost or confused because you already know your way around.

Something can also be too familiar. When people say “don't get too familiar with the rules,” they mean don't get so comfortable that you start bending them. If someone acts overly familiar with a person they just met (like giving them a nickname or asking personal questions), they're behaving as if they know that person better than they actually do.

You might say “that name sounds familiar” when you've heard it before but can't quite place where. Being familiar with a subject means you understand it well, like being familiar with long division or familiar with the rules of chess.