"__ Sir or Madam . . ."

The answer

DEAR

4 letters. See every clue for this answer on the DEAR answer page.

Used 19 times across 10 distinct years; most recently in 2026; first recorded in 2013. It appears in 1 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other answers for this clue

The same clue has also been answered these ways in the xd corpus. Answers inside this collection link to their own answer page.

• TITLE (27 uses in xd)
• FORMOFADDRESS (1 uses in xd)
• NOUN (1 uses in xd)

Other clues for DEAR

Every other clue in this collection answered by DEAR, most used first.

• Letter opener - used 150 times, most recently in 2026
• Beloved - used 110 times, most recently in 2026
• Cherished - used 104 times, most recently in 2026
• Precious - used 101 times, most recently in 2026
• Expensive - used 70 times, most recently in 2024
• Letter starter - used 39 times, most recently in 2025
• Darling - used 33 times, most recently in 2025
• Sweetie - used 30 times, most recently in 2025
• Costly - used 29 times, most recently in 2019
• Sweetheart - used 25 times, most recently in 2024
• Honey - used 19 times, most recently in 2026
• Treasured - used 19 times, most recently in 2025
• Honeybunch - used 18 times, most recently in 2026
• Pricey - used 18 times, most recently in 2024
• Much-loved - used 16 times, most recently in 2026
• First word of a letter - used 14 times, most recently in 2026
• "___ Abby" - used 12 times, most recently in 2019
• Sweetums - used 11 times, most recently in 2023
• Highly valued - used 10 times, most recently in 2016
• Term of affection - used 9 times, most recently in 2015
• High-priced - used 8 times, most recently in 2024
• Salutation starter - used 8 times, most recently in 2021
• Snookums - used 8 times, most recently in 2017
• Start of many letters - used 8 times, most recently in 2025
• Esteemed. - used 7 times, most recently in 1968
• Highly prized - used 7 times, most recently in 2018
• "___ me!" - used 7 times, most recently in 2017
• Very expensive - used 7 times, most recently in 2025
• Close to one's heart - used 6 times, most recently in 2020
• "__ Diary ... " - used 6 times, most recently in 2026
• Start of a letter - used 6 times, most recently in 2024
• Steep - used 6 times, most recently in 2005

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• Sir Guinness - ALEC, used 122 times
• "To Sir With Love" singer - LULU, used 36 times
• "Madam, I'm ___" - ADAM, used 24 times
• Sir Anthony - EDEN, used 22 times
• Sir Geraint's wife - ENID, used 22 times
• Deer sir - STAG, used 19 times

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