Start of many letters

The answer

DEAR

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

Used 8 times across 7 distinct years; most recently in 2025; first recorded in 2005. It appears in 4 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

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
• "__ Sir or Madam . . ." - 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
• 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.

• Greek letters - ETAS, used 270 times
• Not many - AFEW, used 167 times
• Greek letters - PSIS, used 163 times
• ___ many words - INSO, used 153 times
• Invitation letters - RSVP, used 138 times
• Greek letters - RHOS, used 117 times

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