mean
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: mēn
ipa: /miːn/
note: Local Dublin
ipa: /miːn/
note: Local Dublin
ipa: /mijən/
homophone: meen
homophone: mene
homophone: mien
homophone: mesne
rhymes: -iːn
Forms: form: means
form: meaning
form: meant
form: meant
Etymology: 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”). Non-Indo-European cognates include Finnish mainita (“to mention”), Finnish meinata (“to mean, to plan, to intend”) Estonian mainima (“to mention”), Northern Sami máinnastit (“to tell”). Related to moan.
Senses: examples: text: I didn't mean to knock your tooth out.
text: I mean to go to Arévalo in Spainn this summer; been meaning to tell you for weeks, but I've just found the time.
text: I meant to take the car in for a smog check, but it slipped my mind.
text: The authors meant a challenge to the status quo.
text: Do you mean to say you regret it after all?
text: Doo not my captaines and my ſouldiers looke
As if they meant to conquer Affrica?
ref: c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
glosses: To intend.
To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention.
examples: text: Don't be angry; she meant well.
glosses: To intend.
To have as intentions of a given kind.
examples: text: Actually this desk was meant for the subeditor.
text: Man was not meant to question such things.
glosses: To intend.
To intend (something) for a given purpose or fate; to predestine.
examples: text: Your reasoning seems needlessly abstruse, complex, and verbose for me. I mean, could you dumb it down for my sake?
glosses: To intend.
To intend an ensuing comment or statement as an explanation.
examples: text: The sky is red this morning—does that mean we're in for a storm?
text: There are four weekly services to Pyongyang (; Pingrang; hard-sleeper ¥1164-1214, soft-sleeper ¥1692-1737). The K27 and K28 both leave twice a week from Beijing Train Station, meaning there’s a train on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
ref: 2013 May, China (Lonely Planet), 13th edition, →ISBN, →OCLC, page https://archive.org/details/travel-guides-lp/china-13/page/n185/:
text: An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.
ref: 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):
glosses: To convey (a meaning).
To convey (a given sense); to signify, or indicate (an object or idea).
examples: text: What does this hieroglyph mean?
text: A term should be included if it's likely that someone would run across it and want to know what it means. This in turn leads to the somewhat more formal guideline of including a term if it is attested and idiomatic.
ref: 2010, Alexander Humez, Nicholas Humez, Rob Flynn, Short Cuts: A Guide to Oaths, Ring Tones, Ransom Notes, Famous Last Words, and Other Forms of Minimalist Communication, Oxford University Press US, →ISBN, page 33:
text: Americans, for example, call newcomers to Antarctica “fingies”, which comes from FNGs – a borrowed military abbreviation that means “Fucking New Guy”.
ref: 2024 June 20, Eva Corlett, “Fidlets, fingies and riding a doo: study sheds light on Antarctic English slang”, in The Guardian:
glosses: To convey (a meaning).
Of a word, symbol etc: to have reference to, to signify.
examples: text: I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean.
text: He's a little different, if you know what I mean.
glosses: To convey (a meaning).
Of a person (or animal etc): to intend to express, to imply, to hint at, to allude.
examples: text: Does she really mean what she said to him last night?
text: Say what you mean and mean what you say.
glosses: To have conviction in (something said or expressed); to be sincere in (what one says).
examples: text: One faltering step means certain death.
text: This breakthrough will mean that we spend less on electricity bills.
text: It was a goal that meant West Ham won on their first appearance at Wembley in 31 years, in doing so becoming the first team since Leicester in 1996 to bounce straight back to the Premier League through the play-offs.
ref: 2012 May 19, Paul fletcher, “Blackpool 1-2 West Ham”, in BBC Sport:
text: One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.[…]But out of sight is out of mind. And that, together with the inherent yuckiness of the subject, means that many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair.
ref: 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:
glosses: To cause or produce (a given result); to bring about (a given result).
examples: text: That little dog meant everything to me.
text: Formality and titles mean nothing in their circle.
glosses: To be of some level of importance.
raw_tags: with to
examples: text: Thanne morned Mede · and mened hire to the kynge / To haue space to speke · spede if she myȝte.
ref: c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, section III:
text: They were forced to mean our estate to the Queen of England.
ref: 1560 (1677), Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. iii. (1677), page 144
text: If you should die for me, sir knight, There's few for you will meane, [...]
ref: 1803, Sir Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, page 276:
text: All the tyme of his sickness he never said, "Alace!" or meaned any pain, whilk was marvellous. Never man died in greater peace of mind or body.
ref: 1845, Wodrow Society, Select Biographies:
synonyms: word: grieve
word: mourn
word: begrieve
word: bemoan
word: bewail
word: beweep
word: condole
word: deplore
word: grieve
word: grieven
word: keen
word: lament
word: mean
word: mourn
word: pine
word: sigh
word: sorrow
word: wail
word: wayment
glosses: To lament.
Synonyms: sense: convey, signify, indicate
word: convey
sense: convey, signify, indicate
word: indicate
sense: convey, signify, indicate
word: signify
sense: want or intend to convey
word: imply
sense: want or intend to convey
word: mean to say
sense: intend, plan on doing
word: intend
sense: have conviction in what one says
word: be serious
sense: result in, bring about
word: bring about
sense: result in, bring about
word: cause
sense: result in, bring about
word: lead to
sense: result in, bring about
word: result in
Derived terms: and I don't mean maybe
how do you mean
if you see what I mean
I mean
like one means it
meanable
mean business
mean everything to
meanless
mean the whole world to
mean the world to
mean to
mean to say
mean well
mismean
nah mean
no means no
sore boob means more boob
this means war
treat 'em mean to keep 'em keen
unmean
well-meaning
whaddayamean
what does … mean
what do you mean
y'all means all
you know what I mean