Near
Neighborhood, Vicinity, Nearly, Shortly
adverb, noun
This is the noun version of the kanji near. So it also means near, or in the neighborhood of something.
Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. You already learned this reading when you learned 近い, so you should be able to read this word as well.
コンビニは近くにありますか？
Is there a convenience store nearby?
テレビは近くの中古ショップで手に入れました。
I got the TV at a used shop nearby.
近くで見ると本当のダイアモンドじゃないって分かるよ。
If you look closely, you would know it's not a real diamond.