rather adv

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" [syn: instead]

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" [syn: kind of, kinda, sort of]

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" [syn: preferably, sooner]

4 to a degree (not used with a negative); "quite tasty"; "quite soon"; "quite ill"; "quite rich" [syn: quite]

English

Etymology

Via from hraþor

Pronunciation

• (British) räthə(r), /ˈrɑːðə(r)/, /"rA:D@(r)/
• (American) răthər, /ˈræðɚ/, /"r

Rather is a family name. It is also an adverb in the English language.

Rather may refer to:

Engineering

Elizabeth Rather, co-founder of Forth, Inc. colleague of Chuck Moore and the second ever Forth programmer.

Media

Dan Rather, popular news anchor

OK, Roger, a bit, a little, a rebours, absolutely, acceptably, adequately, after all, again, against the grain, albeit, all right, all the same, alright, alrighty, alternately, alternatively, although, amen, arsy-varsy, as an alternative, as you say, assuredly, at all events, at any rate, aye, before, but, by all means, by choice, by contraries, by election, by proxy, by vote, certainly, choose, choose rather, contra, contrarily, contrariously, contrariwise, conversely, da, decently, even, even so, exactly, extremely, fairishly, fairly, fairly well, faute de mieux, favor, fine, first, for all that, good, good enough, have a bias, have preference, have rather, hear, honor before, howbeit, however, in a measure, in a way, in any case, in any event, in flat opposition, in its place, in its stead, in loco parentis, in preference, in some measure, indeed, indeedy, instead, inversely, it is that, ja, just so, just the opposite, just the same, kind of, lean towards, like better, mais oui, moderately, more, more or less, most assuredly, naturally, naturellement, nay rather, nevertheless, nonetheless, notwithstanding, of course, okay, on the contrary, oppositely, otherwise, oui, passably, per contra, please, positively, precisely, prefer, prefer to, preferably, presentably, pretty, pretty well, quite, quite the contrary, rather than, really, respectably, right, right as rain, right you are, righto, satisfactorily, scarcely, see fit, set before, slightly, so-so, somewhat, sooner, sooner than, sort of, still, sure, sure thing, surely, that is so, think best, think fit, think proper, though, to a degree, to be sure, to some extent, to the contrary, tolerably, topsy-turvy, tout au contraire, truly, unexceptionably, upside down, very, very well, vice versa, well and good, well enough, when, why yes, yea, yeah, yep, yes, yes indeed, yes indeedy, yes sir, yes sirree, yet, you are right, you said it, you speak truly