Rare

From Diablo Wiki

Rare, in Diablo terminology, refers to an item type. A rare can be any type of item (ie., boots, swords, amulets), and it is higher quality than a normal or magical item, but not as high in quality as a set or legendary item. The quality of the item is determined by the modifiers that the item possesses. A rare item can have four magical modifiers (or more?), which separates it from a magical item, which can only have one to two modifiers.

Rares in Diablo III

Rare items in Diablo III can either be drops, or they can also be crafted. According to Bashiok, rares will be amongst the best items in the game [1].

This is ignoring the fact that rares can be crafted, of course. It is currently unknown as to if rare items will follow the Diablo II model by having unique, randomly-generated names.

More information about other item types can be found in the item category entry.

Modifiers and Inferno

Along with the official release of information about the new Inferno difficulty, players were shown an example of an Inferno-level rare item in the form of a tooltip, shown to the side, for an axe randomly named "Savage Mangler." There are seven modifiers present, whereas in previous screenshots and videos, there were at most four.