Deer and dear are homophones in English and are often confused; they are both pronounced /dɪəʳ/ but have different spellings and their meanings are completely different.
deer
Deer is a countable noun. The plural form is also ‘deer’.
A deer is a large wild animal that eats grass and leaves. A male deer usually has large, branching horns.
He likes to watch deer frolic in his garden.
dear
Dear is usually an adjective.
Dear is written at the beginning of a letter or email, followed by the name or title of the person you are writing to. In British English, you can begin formal letters or emails with ‘Dear Sir‘ or ‘Dear Madam‘. In American English, you begin them with ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’.
Dear Peter, I have been thinking about you so much during the past few days.
‘Dear sir,’ she began.
You can also use dear to describe someone or something that you feel affection for or care deeply about.
Mrs Cavendish is a dear friend of mine.
His family life was very dear to him.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
