any of various malt liquors considered nonalcoholic because they contain less than a specified percentage of alcohol

Pronunciation:
NEER BEER

In a sentence:
When Bret’s friends found out that he’d bought near beer for his party after a heated argument with his mother, they pretended to be upset. In reality, they were incredibly relieved and looked forward to taking shots of orange juice and cider while chugging all the malt beverage their little tummies could handle.

In a different sentence:
Veronica prefers near beer to most any other beverage; she says it “gets her just the right amount of drunk, just the right amount of full, and just the right amount of guilty.”