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meaning

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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

meaning¹

  • /ˈmiː.nɪŋ/ UK
  • /ˈmi.nɪŋ/ Canada, US
  • /ˈmiː.nɪŋ/ Australia
  • [ˈmɪi.nɪŋ] Australia
  • /ˈmiː.nəŋ/ New Zealand

Rhymes with -iːnɪŋ

Where it comes from

From Middle English mening, menyng, equivalent to mean + -ing. Cognate with Scots mening (“intent, purpose, sense, meaning”), West Frisian miening (“opinion, mind”), Dutch mening (“view, opinion, judgement”), German Meinung (“opinion, view, mind, idea”), Danish and Swedish mening (“meaning, sense, sentence, opinion”), Icelandic meining (“meaning”).

noun meanings

  1. countable, uncountable The denotation, referent, or idea connected with a word, expression, or symbol. Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."
  2. countable, uncountable The connotation associated with a word, expression, or symbol.
  3. countable, uncountable The purpose, value, or significance (of something) beyond the fact of that thing's existence. Near-synonyms: meaningfulness, point, purpose, significance, use
  4. countable, uncountable Intention. It was their meaning to take what they needed by strong hand.

meaning²

  • /ˈmiː.nɪŋ/ UK
  • /ˈmi.nɪŋ/ Canada, US
  • /ˈmiː.nɪŋ/ Australia
  • [ˈmɪi.nɪŋ] Australia
  • /ˈmiː.nəŋ/ New Zealand

Rhymes with -iːnɪŋ

Where it comes from

From mean + -ing.

verb

  1. gerund, participle, present present participle and gerund of mean Chinghung, meaning “City of the Dawn” in the Tai language, the capital of the Hsishuangpanna Tai Autonomous Chou, lies in an agricultural area on the lower Lantsang.

adjective more meaning · most meaning

  1. Having a (specified) intention. Well/ill meaning.
  2. Expressing some intention or significance; meaningful. I might, to-day, have been a better, and thus a happier man, had I less frequently rejected the counsels embodied in those meaning whispers which I then but too cordially hated and too bitterly despised.

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