mere

See also: Appendix:Variations of "mere"

English

Pronunciation

(body of water; limit; famous; just, only):

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɪə̯/
• (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): /mɪː/, /mɪjə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /mɪɚ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /miə/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /miɾ/, [miːɾ]
• (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/

  • Audio (Southern England); /ˈmɛɹi/:

    (file)

  • Audio (Southern England); /ˈmɛɹɛ/:

    (file)

• 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; see also Thesaurus:mere

   The mere thought of pineapple on pizza makes me want to throw up.

   The mere suggestion that the queen’s brother tried to kill your boy would be considered treason.

   • 1733, I[saac] W[atts], “Essay I. A Fair Enquiry and Debate Concerning Space. Sect[ion] XII. Space Nothing Real, but a Meer Abstract Idea.”, in Philosophical Essays on Various Subjects, […], London: […] Richard Ford […], and Richard Hett […], →OCLC, page 44:

     And ſo vve may have an ever-grovving Idea of infinite Number as vvell as infinite Space or Emptineſs, yet it is a meer Idea, and hath no real Exiſtence vvithout us.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC:

     Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; […].

   • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything: Black Swan, page 23:

     ...And ocean salinity, of course, represented only the merest sliver of my ignorance. I didn't know what a proton was, didn't know a quark from a quasar, didn't know how geologists could look at a layer of rock on a canyon wall and tell you how old it was, didn't know anything, really. I became gripped by a quiet, unwonted but insistent urge to know a little more about these matters and to understand above all how people figured them out.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion:

     More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.

   • 2012 March, Brian Hayes, “Pixels or Perish”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 106:

     Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.

   • 2019, Con Man Games, SmashGames, quoting Margaret, Kindergarten 2, SmashGames:

     Ah...my sister wishes to see you. A mere child. She never wants to have lunch with her dear sister, but I guess that's not your problem.

2. (obsolete) Pure, unalloyed [8th–17th c.].

   Synonyms: immaculate, unadulterated, pristine; see also Thesaurus:pure

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     So oft as I this history record, / My heart doth melt with meere compassion […].

   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 56, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

     Meere [translating pure] ignorance, and wholy relying on others, was verily more profitable and wiser, than is this verball, and vaine knowledge […].

3. (obsolete) Nothing less than; complete, downright [15th–18th c.].

   Synonyms: absolute, thorough, utter; see also Thesaurus:total

   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 3, member 7:

     If every man might have what he would […] we should have another chaos in an instant, a meer confusion.

   • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter 35, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume I, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

     This freedom of expostulation exalted his mother's ire to meer frenzy […] .

Derived terms

• mere exposure effect
• merely
• mere mortal

Translations

just, only; no more than

• Bulgarian: само (bg) (samo)
• Catalan: mer (ca)
• Chinese: 僅 / 仅 (zh)
• Dutch: schamel (nl), luttel (nl), louter (nl)
• Finnish: pelkkä (fi)
• French: simple (fr)
• German: bloß (de)
• Hungarian: puszta (hu), csupán (hu)
• Khmer: គ្រាន់តែ (km) (kroan tae)
• Mirandese: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: sam (pl)
• Portuguese: mero (pt)
• Romanian: simplu (ro)
• Russian: просто́й (ru) (prostój), не бо́лее чем (ne bóleje čem)
• Serbo-Croatian: пуки
• Spanish: mero (es)
• Swedish: bara (sv), blott (sv)
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: قورو (kuru)

• Ukrainian: прости́й (uk) (prostýj), лише́ (lyšé)
• Volapük: please add this translation if you can

pure, unalloyed

• Bulgarian: чист (bg) (čist)

nothing less than

• Bulgarian: пълен (bg) (pălen), абсолютен (bg) (absoljuten)

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.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     The Troian Brute did first that Citie found, / And Hygate made the meare thereof by West, / And Ouert gate by North: that is the bound / Toward the land; two riuers bound the rest.

Derived terms

• dungmere
• Hertsmere
• mareblob
• meresman
• merestake
• merestead
• merestone
• meretree
• Woodmere

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.
   • 2016 April, David EM Andrews, “Merely a question of boundaries.”, in Sheetlines‎^[1], The Charles Close Society, →ISSN:

     What chance is there of revising this example of case law to include an exception to the generally cited rule when an administrative boundary has been mered in the past to coincide with a private property boundary?

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 maar and mare (“a large, dark plain; a lake on Titan”).

Alternative forms

• mar, mear, meer, meere

Noun

mere (plural meres)

1. (obsolete) Synonym of sea, a large body of salt water.
2. (obsolete) Synonym of inlet, an arm of the sea.
3. (literary or UK dialectal) A body of standing water, inclusive of lakes, ponds, and pools, especially any broad and shallow one.
   • 1622, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 20 p. 16:

     When making for the Brooke, the Falkoner doth espie
     On River, Plash, or Mere, where store of Fowle doth lye:

   • 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume (please specify |volume=I to VIII), London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC:

     The meres of Shropshire and Cheshire.

   • 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

     As a tempest influences the sluggish waters of the deadest mere.

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page)”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC:

     A gloomy-gladed hollow slowly sink
     To westward - in the deeps whereof a mere,
     Round as the red eye of an Eagle-owl,
     Under the half-dead sunset glared

   • 1897, Transactions of the Manchester Geological and Mining Society, page 500:

     […] the salt field which extends from those old salt meres at Barton, a little south of Birkdale, and on to Preesall, near Fleetwood.

   • 1913, Annie S. Swan, The Fairweathers:

     She loved.. to watch the lovely shadows in the silent depths of the placid mere.

   • 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber & Faber, published 2005, page 194:

     Lok got to his feet and wandered along by the marshes towards the mere where Fa had disappeared.

4. (UK dialectal) Synonym of marsh.
   • 1999 September 12, Anthony Horowitz et al., “Dead Man's Eleven”, in Midsomer Murders:

     Cully Barnaby: Right to roam, Dad. She has got a point.
     DCI Tom Barnaby: But it's a mere. Who'd want to walk across a mere?

Derived terms

• mere pool
• mereswine
• merfolk
• mermaid
• merman

Related terms

• marsh

Etymology 4

See mayor.

Noun

mere (plural meres)

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

Etymology 5

Borrowed from Māori mere (“more”).

Noun

mere (plural meres)

1. A Maori war-club.
   • 2000, Errol Fuller, Extinct Birds, Oxford, page 41:

     As Owen prepared to dismiss the matter, Rule produced something that really caught the great man's eye – a greenstone mere, the warclub of the Maori.

Anagrams

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

Afrikaans

Noun

mere

1. plural of meer

Danish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /meːrə/, [ˈmeːɐ]

Adjective

mere

1. more; to a higher degree

   Han er mere højtidelig end jeg er.

   He is more solemn than I am.

2. more; in greater quantity

   I har mere plads end jeg har.

   You have more space than I do.

Usage notes

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

Adverb

mere

1. more

References

• “mere” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “mere” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

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

Weak feminine noun

	singular	plural
nominative	mēre	mēren
accusative	mēre	mēren
genitive	mēre, mēren	mēren
dative	mēre, mēren	mēren

Strong neuter noun

	singular	plural
nominative	mēre	mēre
accusative	mēre	mēre
genitive	mēers	mēre
dative	mēre	mēren

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 (Early Middle English)

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 (Early Middle English)

Adjective

mere

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

References

• “mēr(e, adj.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 3

From Old English mere, from Proto-West Germanic *mari, from Proto-Germanic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri.

Alternative forms

• mer, mar, marre
• mære (Early Middle English)

Noun

mere (plural meres)

1. lake, pond, pool
2. sea, ocean

Descendants

• English: mere
• Scots: mere

References

• “mēre, n.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 4

Noun

mere

1. alternative form of mare (“horse, mare”)

Etymology 5

Noun

mere

1. alternative form of mare (“spirit”)

Etymology 6

Verb

mere

1. (Cheshire) alternative form of merren

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

Etymology 1

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

Cognates

Cognate with Old Frisian mere (West Frisian mar), Old Saxon meri (Low German Meer), Dutch meer, Old High German meri (German Meer), Old Norse marr (Swedish mar). The Indo-European root is also the source of Latin mare, Old Irish muir (Breton mor), Old Church Slavonic море (more) (Russian мо́ре (móre)), Lithuanian mãre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈme.re/
• Rhymes: -e.re

Noun

mere m

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

Declension

Strong i-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	mere	meras
accusative	mere	meras
genitive	meres	mera
dative	mere	merum

Derived terms

• hellemere
• meredēaþ
• meregrot
• merehūs (“Noah's ark”)
• mereswīn
• ȳþmere

Descendants

• Middle English: mere, mer, mar, marre, mære (Early Middle English)
  • English: mere
  • Scots: mere

See also

• ēa (“river”)
• gārseċġ (“ocean”)
• sǣ (“sea”)
• strēam (“stream”)

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeː.re/
• Rhymes: -eː.re

Noun

mēre f (Anglian, Kentish)

1. alternative form of mīere

Declension

Weak n-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	mēre	mēran
accusative	mēran	mēran
genitive	mēran	mērena
dative	mēran	mērum

Related terms

• mearh

Etymology 3

Verb

mere (Anglian)

1. singular imperative of merran

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^[2] (in Polish), volume 4, z. 1, Warsaw: skł. gł. w Księgarni E. Wende i Ska, page 307

Romanian

Alternative forms

• мере (mere) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈme.re/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ere
• Hyphenation: me‧re

Noun

mere n pl

1. indefinite plural of măr (“apple”)

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈme.re/
• (Transylvania) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛ.re]

Verb

a mere (third-person singular present mere, past participle mers, third-person subjunctive meară or meargă) 3rd conjugation

1. (Transylvania, Banat, Crișana) alternative form of merge (“to walk; to go; to function”)

Conjugation

• Some speakers might combine some of the forms with the -g- still pronounced into this variant. As such, if in a cell there are 2 forms, the first one is the way this verb would normally be conjugated, and the 2nd form is what is more common in usage. This does cause it, however, to become irregular.
• The gerund form, merând, is rarely, if ever, said, and as such isn’t listed.

Conjugation of mere (third conjugation)

infinitive		a mere
gerund		mergând
past participle		mers
person	singular			plural
	first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative	eu	tu	el/ea	noi	voi	ei/ele
present	mer, merg	meri	mere	merem	mereți	mer, merg
imperfect	meream	mereai	merea	meream	mereați	mereau
simple perfect	mersei	merseși	merse	merserăm	merserăți	merseră
pluperfect	mersesem	merseseși	mersese	merseserăm	merseserăţi	merseseră
subjunctive	eu	tu	el/ea	noi	voi	ei/ele
present	să mer, merg	să meri	să meară, meargă	să merem	să mereţi	să meară, meargă
imperative	—	tu	—	—	voi	—
affirmative		meri			mere
negative		nu mere			nu mere

See also

• merge

Further reading

• “mere”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026

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

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeɾe/ [ˈme.ɾe]
• Rhymes: -eɾe
• Syllabification: me‧re

Adverb

mere

1. (archaic) merely

   Synonym: meramente

Verb

mere

1. inflection of merer:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “mere”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), 24th edition, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 30 October 2026