When something is near, it's close by in distance, time, or relation. Your best friend sitting at the desk near yours is only a few feet away. A birthday that's near is coming up soon. A near relative is someone closely related to you, like a sibling or parent, rather than a distant cousin.

Near can also mean almost or nearly. A near miss in basketball describes a shot that almost went in but didn't quite make it. When you have a near-perfect score on a spelling test, you got almost every word right. Someone might say they came near to winning the race, meaning they almost won but finished second or third.

The word carries a sense of closeness that matters. Things that are near affect us more than distant things. A storm that's near concerns you more than one hundreds of miles away. A problem that's near at hand needs attention now. When something draws near, it approaches. When you're nearly finished with your homework, you're close to being done.

Notice how near often implies “not quite”: nearly there, near victory, near disaster. It's the space between far away and right here, between someday and now, between stranger and family.