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Mere

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

mere¹

  • /mɪə̯/ UK
  • /mɪː/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /mɪjə/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /mɪɚ/ US
  • /miə/ New Zealand
  • /miɾ/ Scotland
  • [miːɾ] Scotland
  • /mjøː/ General South African
  • /mjɜː/
  • /mɛː/
  • /ˈmɛɹi/
  • /ˈmɛɹɛ/

Sounds like mear, mirror (some North American accents), mare (cheer–chair merger) · Rhymes with -ɪə(ɹ), -ɜː(ɹ) (in some varieties of English), -ɛɹi, -ɛɹɛ

Where it comes from

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 merer · merest

  1. Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected. The mere thought of pineapple on pizza makes me want to throw up.
  2. obsolete Pure, unalloyed . So oft as I this history record, / My heart doth melt with meere compassion[…].
  3. obsolete Nothing less than; complete, downright . If every man might have what he would[…]we should have another chaos in an instant, a meer confusion.

Similar: alone, bare, just, mere, only, simple, very

mere²

  • /mɪə̯/ UK
  • /mɪː/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /mɪjə/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /mɪɚ/ US
  • /miə/ New Zealand
  • /miɾ/ Scotland
  • [miːɾ] Scotland
  • /mjøː/ General South African
  • /mjɜː/
  • /mɛː/
  • /ˈmɛɹi/
  • /ˈmɛɹɛ/

Sounds like mear, mirror (some North American accents), mare (cheer–chair merger) · Rhymes with -ɪə(ɹ), -ɜː(ɹ) (in some varieties of English), -ɛɹi, -ɛɹɛ

Where it comes from

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”).

noun meres · meer · meere · mear · meare

  1. Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line. 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.

verb meres · mering · mered · meer · meere

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

mere³

  • /mɪə̯/ UK
  • /mɪː/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /mɪjə/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /mɪɚ/ US
  • /miə/ New Zealand
  • /miɾ/ Scotland
  • [miːɾ] Scotland
  • /mjøː/ General South African
  • /mjɜː/
  • /mɛː/
  • /ˈmɛɹi/
  • /ˈmɛɹɛ/

Sounds like mear, mirror (some North American accents), mare (cheer–chair merger) · Rhymes with -ɪə(ɹ), -ɜː(ɹ) (in some varieties of English), -ɛɹi, -ɛɹɛ

Where it comes from

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”).

noun meres · mar · mear · meer · meere

  1. obsolete Synonym of sea, a large body of salt water.
  2. obsolete Synonym of inlet, an arm of the sea.
  3. UK, dialectal, literary A body of standing water, inclusive of lakes, ponds, and pools, especially any broad and shallow one. When making for the Brooke, the Falkoner doth espie On River, Plash, or Mere, where store of Fowle doth lye:
  4. UK, dialectal Synonym of marsh. 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?

mere⁴

  • /mɪə̯/ UK
  • /mɪː/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /mɪjə/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /mɪɚ/ US
  • /miə/ New Zealand
  • /miɾ/ Scotland
  • [miːɾ] Scotland
  • /mjøː/ General South African
  • /mjɜː/
  • /mɛː/
  • /ˈmɛɹi/
  • /ˈmɛɹɛ/

Sounds like mear, mirror (some North American accents), mare (cheer–chair merger) · Rhymes with -ɪə(ɹ), -ɜː(ɹ) (in some varieties of English), -ɛɹi, -ɛɹɛ

Where it comes from

See mayor.

noun meres

  1. alternative, obsolete Alternative form of mayor and mair.mayor and mair

mere⁵

  • /mɪə̯/ UK
  • /mɪː/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /mɪjə/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /mɪɚ/ US
  • /miə/ New Zealand
  • /miɾ/ Scotland
  • [miːɾ] Scotland
  • /mjøː/ General South African
  • /mjɜː/
  • /mɛː/
  • /ˈmɛɹi/
  • /ˈmɛɹɛ/

Sounds like mear, mirror (some North American accents), mare (cheer–chair merger) · Rhymes with -ɪə(ɹ), -ɜː(ɹ) (in some varieties of English), -ɛɹi, -ɛɹɛ

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Māori mere (“more”).

noun meres

  1. A Maori war-club. 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.

Mere⁶

Where it comes from

# For the places in England: from Old English mere (“lake, pond”).

# For the place in Belgium: from Middle Dutch mēre, from Old Dutch meri (“lake, sea”).

proper noun

  1. A village and civil parish in northern Cheshire East district, Cheshire, England (OS grid ref SJ7381).
  2. A small town and civil parish with a town council in south-west Wiltshire, England (OS grid ref ST8132).
  3. A sub-municipality in East Flanders, Belgium.

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