mean

English Online Dictionary. What means mean‎? What does mean mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: mēn, IPA^(key): /miːn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /min/
• Homophones: meen, mene, mien, mesne
• Rhymes: -iːn

Etymology 1

From Middle English menen (“to intend; remember; lament; comfort”), from Old English mǣnan (“to mean, complain”), Proto-West Germanic *mainijan, from Proto-Germanic *mainijaną (“to mean, think; complain”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyn- (“to think”), or perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meyno-, extended form of Proto-Indo-European *mey-.

Germanic cognates include West Frisian miene (“to deem, think”) (Old Frisian mēna (“to signify”)), Dutch menen (“to believe, think, mean”) (Middle Dutch menen (“to think, intend”)), German meinen (“to think, mean, believe”), Old Saxon mēnian. Indo-European cognates include Old Irish mían (“wish, desire”) and Polish mienić (“to signify, believe”). Related to moan.

Verb

mean (third-person singular simple present means, present participle meaning, simple past and past participle meant)

1. To intend.
   1. (transitive) To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention. [from 8th c.]
   2. (intransitive) To have as intentions of a given kind. [from 14th c.]

   3. (transitive, usually in passive) To intend (something) for a given purpose or fate; to predestine. [from 16th c.]

   4. (transitive) To intend an ensuing comment or statement as an explanation.

2. To convey (a meaning).
   1. (transitive) To convey (a given sense); to signify, or indicate (an object or idea). [from 8th c.]
   2. (transitive) Of a word, symbol etc: to have reference to, to signify. [from 8th c.]
   3. (transitive) Of a person (or animal etc): to intend to express, to imply, to hint at, to allude.

3. (transitive) To have conviction in (something said or expressed); to be sincere in (what one says). [from 18th c.]

4. (transitive) To cause or produce (a given result); to bring about (a given result). [from 19th c.]
5. (usually with to) To be of some level of importance.

   That little dog meant everything to me.

   Formality and titles mean nothing in their circle.

Synonyms

• (convey, signify, indicate): convey, indicate, signify
• (want or intend to convey): imply, mean to say
• (intend; plan on doing): intend
• (have conviction in what one says): be serious
• (have intentions of a some kind):
• (result in; bring about): bring about, cause, lead to, result in

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

mean (third-person singular simple present means, present participle meaning, simple past and past participle meaned)

1. (Ireland, UK regional) To lament.
   • 1560 (1677), Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. iii. (1677), page 144:

     They were forced to mean our estate to the Queen of England.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English mene, imene, from Old English mǣne, ġemǣne (“common, public, general, universal”), from Proto-West Germanic *gamainī, from Proto-Germanic *gamainiz (“common”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change, exchange, share”).

Cognate with West Frisian mien (“general, universal”), Dutch gemeen (“common, mean”), German gemein (“common, mean, nasty”), Danish gemen, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (gamains, “common, unclean”), Latin commūnis (“shared, common, general”) (Old Latin comoinem).

Adjective

mean (comparative meaner, superlative meanest)

1. (obsolete) Common; general.
2. (now rare) Of a common or low origin, grade, or quality; common; humble.
3. Low in quality or degree; inferior; poor; shabby.

   Synonyms: cheap, grotty; see also Thesaurus:low-quality

4. Without dignity of mind; destitute of honour; low-minded; spiritless; base.

   Synonyms: base, ignoble, selfish, unkind, vile

   Antonyms: lofty, noble, honorable
5. Of little value or worth; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable.
6. (chiefly UK) Ungenerous; stingy; tight-fisted.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stingy

7. Disobliging; pettily offensive or unaccommodating.
8. Intending to cause harm, successfully or otherwise; bearing ill will towards another.

   Synonyms: cruel, malicious, nasty

9. Powerful; fierce; strong.

   Synonyms: harsh, damaging, fierce
10. (colloquial) Hearty; spicy.
11. (colloquial) Accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with.

    Synonyms: deft, skillful, top-notch
12. (informal, often childish) Difficult, tricky.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English meene, borrowed from Old French meien (French moyen), Late Latin mediānus (“that is in the middle, middle”), from Latin medius (“middle”). Cognate with mid. For the musical sense, compare the cognate Italian mezzano. Doublet of median and mizzen.

Alternative forms

• (obsolete) myn

Adjective

mean (not comparable)

1. Having the mean (see noun below) as its value; average.
2. (obsolete) Middling; intermediate; moderately good, tolerable.
   • , II.ii.2:

     I have declared in the causes what harm costiveness hath done in procuring this disease; if it be so noxious, the opposite must needs be good, or mean at least, as indeed it is […].

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

mean (plural means)

1. (now chiefly in the plural) A method or course of action used to achieve some result. [from 14th c.]
2. (obsolete, in the singular) An intermediate step or intermediate steps.
   • a. 1563, Thomas Harding, "To the Reader", in The Works of John Jewel (1845 ed.)

     Verily in this treatise this hath been mine only purpose; and the mean to bring the same to effect hath been such as whereby I studied to profit wholesomely, not to please delicately.

   • a. 1623, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi

     Apply desperate physic: / We must not now use balsamum, but fire, / The smarting cupping-glass, for that's the mean / To purge infected blood, such blood as hers.

3. Something which is intermediate or in the middle; an intermediate value or range of values; a medium. [from 14th c.]
   • 1875, William Smith and Samuel Cheetham, editors, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Little, Brown and Company, volume 1, page 10, s.v. Accentus Ecclesiasticus,

     It presents a sort of mean between speech and song, continually inclining towards the latter, never altogether leaving its hold on the former; it is speech, though always attuned speech, in passages of average interest and importance; it is song, though always distinct and articulate song, in passages demanding more fervid utterance.

4. (music, now historical) The middle part of three-part polyphonic music; now specifically, the alto part in polyphonic music; an alto instrument. [from 15th c.]
5. (statistics) The average of a set of values, calculated by summing them together and dividing by the number of terms; the arithmetic mean. [from 15th c.]
6. (mathematics) Any function of multiple variables that satisfies certain properties and yields a number representative of its arguments; or, the number so yielded; a measure of central tendency.
   • 1997, Angus Deaton, The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconometric Approach to Development Policy,^[9] World Bank Publications, →ISBN, page 51:

     Note that (1.41) is simply the probability-weighted mean without any explicit allowance for the stratification; each observation is weighted by its inflation factor and the total divided by the total of the inflation factors for the survey.
7. (mathematics) Either of the two numbers in the middle of a conventionally presented proportion, as 2 and 3 in 1:2=3:6.

Hypernyms

• (statistics): measure of central tendency, measure of location, sample statistic

Coordinate terms

• (statistics): median, mode

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• (statistics): spread, range

Further reading

• “mean”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “mean”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• -mane, -nema, Amen, Eman, Enma, MENA, Mena, NAmE, NEMA, NMEA, amen, mane, mnae, name, namé, neam, ñame

Chinese

Etymology

From English mean.

Pronunciation

Adjective

mean

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) mean (unkind; offensive)

Verb

mean

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to be mean towards someone

Manx

Etymology

From Old Irish medón (“middle, centre”), from Latin mediānus.

Noun

mean m (genitive singular [please provide], plural [please provide])

1. centre, middle

   Share çhyndaa cabbil ayns mean ny h-aah na goll er vaih. ― Better to change horses in mid ford than to drown.

2. interior

   Tar stiagh ayns mean y killagh. ― Come into the body of the church.

3. average

   Trogmayd mean. ― We will strike an average.

Derived terms

• meanagh (“center, central; intermediate; centric, centrical”, adj)
• mean scoill (“secondary school, college”)

Mutation

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish menbach (“small”), from a Proto-Celtic derivation of the root *mey- (“small, little”). Cognate with Latin minus, minor, minutus and Ancient Greek μινύθω (minúthō, “lessen”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛn/

Adjective

mean

1. little, tiny

Synonyms

• beag
• bìodach
• meanbh
• mion

Derived terms

• mean air mhean

Mutation

Spanish

Verb

mean

1. third-person plural present indicative of mear

Tetum

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *(ma-)iʀaq, compare Malay merah.

Adjective

mean

1. red