Means Meaning
/miːnz/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounplural of mean
nounAn instrument or condition to achieve a result.
Sentence Examples
Being objective means not telling everybody whose side you are on.
You must cut down on extra expenses in order to live within your means.
Email is a highly effective means of communication.
CEFR Practice Quiz
To travel across the country, she used various ____ such as buses and trains.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We must find a ____ of transportation that is both environmentally friendly and affordable.
Word Origin & History
From mean (“method or course of action used to achieve some result”). Compare French moyens, German Mittel.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"And by this means also he had them the more at vantage, being tired and harassed with a long march; and more at mercy, being cut off far from their country, and therefore not able by any sudden flight to get to retreat, and to renew their troubles."
— 1622, Francis Bacon, History of the reign of King Henry VII:
"Our hope in him is dead: let us return,
And strain what other means is left unto us
In our dear peril."
— 1623, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, act V, scene 1:
"In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way."
— 2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6:
"Where there is much means to be used, and conditions yet to be performed, for the continuation and Consummation of our Justification, there it is not yet continued or consummate."
— 1676, Richard Baxter, A Treatise of Justifying Righteousness, page 163:
"Because there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce"
— 1888, Karl Marx, edited by Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, page 5:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
To travel across the country, she used various ____ such as buses and trains.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We must find a ____ of transportation that is both environmentally friendly and affordable.