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mere

Pronunciation: /mɪə̯/

The English word “mere” has 12 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.
  2. Pure, unalloyed .
  3. Nothing less than; complete, downright .

noun

  1. Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line.
  2. Synonym of sea, a large body of salt water.
  3. Synonym of inlet, an arm of the sea.
  4. A body of standing water, inclusive of lakes, ponds, and pools, especially any broad and shallow one.
  5. Synonym of marsh.
  6. A Maori war-club.

verb

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

Etymology

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.