Tear - tier

The four letters tear form two unrelated words which have two interpretations. Each has a different pronunciation. There are also the four-letter groups tare and tier, which are each a homophone of one of the tear homographs. Confusing these is not impossible - try not to do it.

• Tear rhyming with 'care' and 'bear' (IPA: /tɛə/) can be a verb or a noun. Its basic meaning is to do with splitting things like cloth or paper more or less violently. You can tear your clothes by accident, for example on a loose nail, or you can tear up the draft of your assignment that you don't think is good enough. These are the verbs. (The past tense is tore; the past participle is torn. See also tear (irregular verb).) In the first example above, you may find, on taking off your shirt, that it has a small tear in it: this is the noun; the analogous usage in the second example may be illustrated by finding a tear in the page of a library book. There are also several figurative uses, such as the emotional "He tore at her heart strings" (meaning the man had a strong emotional appeal to her, and appealed to her love - often with the implication that she did not want to give in to this appeal); and 'to tear away', meaning to travel very fast. (There is also an adjective used mostly to describe over-active and boisterous young men: tearaway.)
• Tare, which is a homophone of this meaning of tear, is not a very common word in academic writing. It spells out two homographs.
  • One of these homographs will more often be seen by students in fields of business, logistics, law and transport. It has various technical meanings in transport, taxes and duties payable.. Despite the similarity in opening letters, it is NOT connected etymologically with tariff, which means basically the table or schedule of such duties.
  • Students of the Bible, literature and theology are more likely to come across the other homograph tare as an archaic name for a weed, or weeds, commonly regarded as a pest in cornfields. Jesus told in one of his parables of the servants who asked their master: "Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?" (Matt. xiii. 27)
• The noun 'a tear', rhyming with 'beer', 'dear' and 'near' (IPA: /tɪə/), has a different meaning. It is one of the drops of water that flow from the eyes under the influence of strong emotion. Tears are usually thought of as signs of grief, but some people cry tears of rage, and others have tears of laughter. When these drops are not the result of emotion, we usually say that a person's "eyes were watering", for example from the wind, or spicy food.
• The homophone of this meaning of tear is tier. It means 'a rank' or 'a row', principally in terms of physical placing vertically. Theatres in the UK traditionally have three tiers, or levels, of seating, and the traditional British wedding cake has three tiers - that is, three separate cakes supported one above the other.