mere

CEFRB2

/mɪə̯/

adjective · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Used to emphasize that something is small, simple, or not important.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Nothing less than; complete, downright .

Examples

  • I'm not a real fish, I'm just a mere plushy.

  • It took her a mere 20 minutes to win.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈmɛɹi/
  • /miə/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Pure, unalloyed .

  2. Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.

noun

Extra meaning

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

More examples

In context

  • You are no longer a mere child.

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

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

Synonyms

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

It was a blank five-minute walk from the hotel to the beach, so we decided to go.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

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.