mere

mere

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of mere in English

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

English

Pronunciation

(body of water; limit; famous; just, only):
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /mɪə̯/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /mɪɚ/
  • (New Zealand) IPA(key): /miə/
  • (Scotland) IPA(key): /miːɹ/
  • (General South African) IPA(key): /mjøː/
  • (Wales, other regions) IPA(key): /mjɜː/
  • (East Anglia, cheer–chair merger) IPA(key): /mɛː/
  • Homophones: mear; mirror (some North American accents); mare (cheer–chair merger)
  • Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
  • Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ) (in some varieties of English)
(Maori war-club):
  • IPA(key): /ˈmɛɹi/, /ˈmɛɹɛ/
  • Rhymes: -ɛɹi, -ɛɹɛ

Etymology 1

From Middle English mere, mer, from Anglo-Norman meer, from Old French mier, from Latin merus (“pure, unmixed, undiluted”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to sparkle, gleam”).

Cognate with Old English āmerian, āmyrian (“to purify, examine, revise”). The Middle English word was perhaps influenced by or conflated with sound-alike Middle English mere (“glorious, noble, splendid, fine, pure”), from Old English mǣre (“famous, great, excellent, sublime, splendid, pure, sterling”), from Proto-West Germanic *mārī, from Proto-Germanic *mērijaz.

Adjective

mere (comparative merer, superlative merest)

  1. Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected. [from 16th c.]
    Synonyms: alone, bare, simple, only, very
  2. (obsolete) Pure, unalloyed [8th–17th c.].
  3. (obsolete) Nothing less than; complete, downright [15th–18th c.].
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English mere, from Old English mǣre, ġemǣre (“boundary; limit”), from Proto-Germanic *mairiją (“boundary”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to fence”). Cognate with Dutch meer (“a limit, boundary”), Icelandic mærr (“borderland”), Swedish landamäre (“border, borderline, boundary”).

Alternative forms

  • meer, meere, mear, meare

Noun

mere (plural meres)

  1. Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line.
Derived terms
  • Hertsmere
  • meresman
  • merestead
  • merestake
  • merestone
  • meretree

Verb

mere (third-person singular simple present meres, present participle mering, simple past and past participle mered)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To limit; bound; divide or cause division in.
  2. (intransitive, obsolete) To set divisions and bounds.
  3. (cartography) To decide upon the position of a boundary; to position it on a map.
Related terms
  • mereing

Etymology 3

From Middle English mere, from Old English mere (“lake, pool,” in compounds and poetry “sea”), from Proto-West Germanic *mari (“sea”), from Proto-Germanic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri. Cognate with West Frisian mar, 'lake', Dutch meer, 'lake', Low German Meer, and German Meer, 'sea'. Non-Germanic cognates include Latin mare, Breton mor, and Russian мо́ре (móre). Doublet of mar and mare.

Alternative forms

  • meer, meere, mear

Noun

mere (plural meres)

  1. (dialectal or literary) A body of standing water, such as a lake or a pond (formerly even a body of seawater), especially a broad, shallow one. (Also included in place names such as Windermere.)
Derived terms

Etymology 4

See mayor.

Noun

mere (plural meres)

  1. (obsolete) Alternative form of mayor and mair.

Etymology 5

Borrowed from Maori mere (“more”).

Noun

mere (plural meres)

  1. A Maori war-club.

Anagrams

  • Emer., meer, erem-, REME, erme, reem, Emer

Afrikaans

Noun

mere

  1. plural of meer

Danish

Etymology

From Old Danish mere, from Old Norse meiri (“more”), from Proto-Germanic *maizô.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /meːrə/, [ˈmeːɐ]

Adjective

mere

  1. more; to a higher degree
  2. more; in greater quantity

Usage notes

"Mere", in the second sense, is only used with uncountable nouns. For countable nouns, use flere.

Adverb

mere

  1. more

Estonian

Noun

mere

  1. genitive singular of meri

Italian

Adjective

mere f

  1. feminine plural of mero

Anagrams

  • erme

Latin

Adverb

merē (not comparable)

  1. purely, without admixture.
  2. merely, no more or less than

Verb

merē

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of mereō

References

  • “mere”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • mere in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • Dictionary of Medieval Latin in British Sources
  • Karl Ernst Georges, Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch (1913/1918; reprinted Darmstadt 1998), vol. 2, column 888 <http://www.zeno.org/nid/20002495945>.

Middle Dutch

Etymology 1

From Old Dutch mēro, from Proto-West Germanic *maiʀō.

Adjective

mêre

  2. greater, larger
    Antonym: minre
  3. older
    Antonym: minre
Inflection

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

Determiner

mêre

  1. more
    Antonym: minre
Descendants
  • Dutch: meer
    • Afrikaans: meer

Adverb

mêre

  1. Alternative form of mêe

Etymology 2

From Old Dutch meri, from Proto-West Germanic *mari.

Noun

mēre f or n

  2. lake (fresh water)
  3. sea (salt water)
Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants
  • Dutch: meer
    • Afrikaans: meer
  • Limburgish: maer

Further reading

  • “mere (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
  • “mere (III)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
  • Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “mere (I)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page I
  • Verwijs, E., Verdam, J. (1885–1929) “mere (VIII)”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN, page VIII

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English mǣre, ġemǣre (“boundary; limit”), from Proto-Germanic *mairiją (“boundary”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to fence”).

Alternative forms

  • mer, merre, mare, mær

Noun

mere (plural meres)

  1. boundary, border
Descendants
  • English: mere
  • ⇒ Yola: pulmere
References
  • “mēre, n.3”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

From Old English mǣre (“famous, great, excellent”), from Proto-West Germanic *mārī, from Proto-Germanic *mērijaz, *mēraz (“excellent, famous”), from Proto-Indo-European *mēros (“large, handsome”). Cognate with Middle High German mære (“famous”), Icelandic mærr (“famous”), and German Mär, Märchen (“fairy tale”).

Alternative forms

  • mer, mære, mare, meare

Adjective

mere

  1. (of God or Saints) glorious, renowned.
  2. (of persons) illustrious, noble, great.
  3. beautiful, fair.
  4. splendid, fine, good.

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French mere medre, from Latin māter, mātrem.

Noun

mere f (plural meres)

  1. mother (female family member)

Descendants

  • French: mère
    • Haitian Creole: mè

Old English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈme.re/

Etymology 1

From Proto-West Germanic *mari (“sea, lake”).

Noun

mere m

  1. lake
  2. pool
  3. (poetic or in compounds) sea
Declension

Strong i-stem:

Derived terms
  • meregrot
  • merehūs (“Noah's ark”, literally “sea-house”)
  • mereswīn
  • ȳþmere
Descendants
  • Middle English: mere
    • English: mere
    • Scots: mere
See also
  • ēa (“river”)
  • gārseċġ (“ocean”)
  • sǣ (“sea”)
  • strēam (“stream”)

Etymology 2

Noun

mere f

  1. a mare (female horse)
Declension

Weak:

Related terms
  • mearh

Old French

Alternative forms

  • medre

Etymology

From earlier medre, from Latin māter, mātrem.

Noun

mere oblique singular, f (oblique plural meres, nominative singular mere, nominative plural meres)

  1. mother (female family member)

Descendants

  • Bourguignon: meire
  • Middle French: mere
    • French: mère
      • Haitian Creole: mè
  • Norman: mère, méthe
  • Walloon: mere

Polish

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

  • (Lesser Poland):
    • (Eastern Kraków) IPA(key): /ˈmɛ.rɛ/

Adverb

mere (not comparable)

  1. (Eastern Kraków) Synonym of całkiem
  2. (Eastern Kraków) Synonym of podobnie

Further reading

  • Błażej Pawłowicz (1892) “mere”, in “Wyrazy gwarowe z okolic Tarnowa”, in Prace Filologiczne (in Polish), volume 4, z. 1, Warsaw: skł. gł. w Księgarni E. Wende i Ska, page 307

Romanian

Pronunciation

Noun

mere n pl

  1. plural of măr

Sardinian

Alternative forms

  • meri (Campidanese)

Etymology

From the nominative of Latin maior (“greater, elder”), via intermediate forms like *maire, *meire. For final /-or/ > /-re/, cf. Sardinian sorre, from Latin soror (“sister”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈmere/

Noun

mere m (plural meres)

  1. (Logudorese) owner, master

References

  • Wagner, Max Leopold (1960–1964) “mère”, in Dizionario etimologico sardo, Heidelberg

Serbo-Croatian

Verb

mere (Cyrillic spelling мере)

  1. third-person plural present of meriti

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