English
mean
see also: MEAN
Pronunciation
  • (British) enPR: mēn, IPA: /miːn/
  • (America) IPA: /min/
Etymology 1

From Middle English menen, from Old English mǣnan, Proto-West Germanic *mainijan, from Proto-Germanic *mainijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *meyn-, or perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meyno-, extended form of Proto-Indo-European *mey-.

Germanic cognates include Western Frisian miene (ofs mēna), Dutch menen (Middle Dutch menen), German meinen, osx mēnian. Indo-European cognates include Old Irish mían and Polish mienić. Non-Indo-European cognates include Finnish mainita, Finnish meinata Estonian mainima, Northern Sami máinnastit. Related to moan.

Verb

mean (means, present participle meaning; simple past and past participle meant)

  1. To intend.
    1. (transitive) To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention. [from 8th c.]
      I didn't mean to knock your tooth out.
      I mean to go to Baddeck this summer.
      I meant to take the car in for a smog check, but it slipped my mind.
      The authors meant a challenge to the status quo.
      • c. 1587–1588, [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 ↗:
        Doo not my captaines and my ſouldiers looke
        As if they meant to conquer Affrica?
    2. (intransitive) To have as intentions of a given kind. [from 14th c.]
      Don't be angry; she meant well.
    3. (transitive, usually in passive) To intend (something) for a given purpose or fate; to predestine. [from 16th c.]
      Actually this desk was meant for the subeditor.
      Man was not meant to question such things.
    4. (transitive) To intend an ensuing comment or statement as an explanation.
      Your reasoning seems needlessly abstruse, complex, and verbose for me. I mean, could you dumb it down for my sake?
  2. To convey (a meaning).
    1. (transitive) To convey (a given sense); to signify, or indicate (an object or idea). [from 8th c.]
      The sky is red this morning—does that mean we're in for a storm?
    2. (transitive) Of a word, symbol etc: to have reference to, to signify. [from 8th c.]
      What does this hieroglyph mean?
    3. (transitive) Of a person (or animal etc): to intend to express, to imply, to hint at, to allude.
      I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean.
      He is a little different, if you know what I mean.
  3. (transitive) To have conviction in (something said or expressed); to be sincere in (what one says). [from 18th c.]
    Does she really mean what she said to him last night?
    Say what you mean and mean what you say.
  4. (transitive) To cause or produce (a given result); to bring about (a given result). [from 19th c.]
    One faltering step means certain death.
  5. (usually with to) To be of some level of importance.
    That little dog meant everything to me.
    Formality and titles mean nothing in their circle.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Italian: tenerci
Verb

mean (means, present participle meaning; simple past and past participle meaned)

  1. (Ireland, UK regional) To lament.
    • c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, section III:
      Thanne morned Mede · and mened hire to the kynge / To haue space to speke · spede if she myȝte.
    • 1560 (1677), Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. iii. (1677), page 144:
      They were forced to mean our estate to the Queen of England.
    • 1845, Wodrow Society, Select Biographies:
      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.
Translations Translations Etymology 2

From Middle English mene, imene, from Old English mǣne, ġemǣne ("common, public, general, universal"), from Proto-West Germanic *gamainī, from Proto-Germanic *gamainiz, from Proto-Indo-European *mey-.

Cognate with Western Frisian mien, Dutch gemeen, German gemein, Danish gemen, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃, Latin commūnis (itc-ola comoinem).

Adjective

mean (comparative meaner, superlative meanest)

  1. (obsolete) Common; general.
  2. (now, rare) Of a common or low origin, grade, or quality; common; humble.
    a man of mean parentage
    a mean abode
    • c. 1587–1588, [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 I, scene ii ↗:
      Thinke you I weigh this treaſure more than you?
      Not all the Gold in Indias welthy armes,
      Shall buy the meaneſt ſouldier in my traine.
    • 1776, Edward Gibbon, chapter 1, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC ↗:
      After every qualification of property had been laid aside, the armies of the Roman emperors were still commanded, for the most part, by officers of liberal birth and education; but the common soldiers, like the mercenary troops of modern Europe, were drawn from the meanest, and very frequently from the most profligate, of mankind.
  3. Low in quality or degree; inferior; poor; shabby.
    Synonyms: cheap, grotty, Thesaurus:low-quality
    a mean appearance
    a mean dress
  4. Without dignity of mind; destitute of honour; low-minded; spiritless; base.
    Synonyms: base, ignoble, selfish, unkind, vile
    Antonyms: lofty, noble, honorable
    a mean motive
    It was mean of you to steal that little girl's piggy bank.
    • 1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1667, →OCLC ↗, Act IV, scene iv, page 50 ↗:
      Can you imagine I ſo mean could prove, / To ſave my Life by changing of my Love?
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 20, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC ↗:
      The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.
  5. Of little value or worth; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable.
    • 1708, [John Philips], “(please specify the page)”, in Cyder. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:
      The Roman legions and great Caesar found / Our fathers no mean foes.
  6. (chiefly, UK) Ungenerous; stingy; tight-fisted.
    Synonyms: Thesaurus:stingy
    He's so mean. I've never seen him spend so much as five pounds on presents for his children.
  7. Disobliging; pettily offensive or unaccommodating.
  8. Intending to cause harm, successfully or otherwise; bearing ill will towards another.
    Synonyms: cruel, malicious, nasty
    Watch out for her, she's mean. I said good morning to her, and she punched me in the nose.
  9. Powerful; fierce; strong.
    Synonyms: harsh, damaging, fierce
    It must have been a mean typhoon that levelled this town.
  10. (colloquial) Hearty; spicy.
  11. (colloquial) Accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with.
    Synonyms: deft, skillful, top-notch
    Your mother can roll a mean cigarette.
    He hits a mean backhand.
  12. (informal, often, childish) Difficult, tricky.
    This problem is mean!
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Adjective

mean (not comparable)

  1. Having the mean (see noun below) as its value; average.
    The mean family has 2.4 children.
  2. (obsolete) Middling; intermediate; moderately good, tolerable.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC ↗:
      , II.ii.2:
      I have declared in the causes what harm costiveness hath done in procuring this disease; if it be so noxious, the opposite must needs be good, or mean at least, as indeed it is […].
    • a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC ↗:
      being of middle age and a mean stature
    • [1644], [John Milton], Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib, [London: […] Thomas Underhill and/or Thomas Johnson], →OCLC ↗:
      according to the fittest style of lofty, mean, or lowly
Related terms Translations Translations Noun

mean (plural means)

  1. (now, chiefly, in the plural) A method or course of action used to achieve some result. [from 14th c.]
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 5, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗:
      To say truth, it is a meane full of uncertainty and danger.
    • c. 1812, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Essays:
      You may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquirements.
    • 1860, William Hamilton, Lectures on Metaphysics:
      Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean.
  2. (obsolete, in the singular) An intermediate step or intermediate steps.
    • a. 1563, Thomas Harding, "To the Reader", in The Works of John Jewel (1845 ed.)
      Verily in this treatise this hath been mine only purpose; and the mean to bring the same to effect hath been such as whereby I studied to profit wholesomely, not to please delicately.
    • 1606, The Trials of Robert Winter, Thomas Winter, Guy Fawkes, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Rob. Keyes, Thomas Bates, and Sir Everard Digby, at Westminster, for High Treason, being Conspirators in the Gunpowder-Plot:
      That it was lawful and meritorious to kill and destroy the king, and all the said hereticks. — The mean to effect it, they concluded to be, that, 1. The king, the queen, the prince, the lords spiritual and temporal, the knights and burgoses of the parliament, should be blown up with powder. 2. That the whole royal issue male should be destroyed. S. That they would lake into their custody Elizabeth and Mary the king's daughters, and proclaim the lady Elizabeth queen. 4. That they should feign a Proclamation in the name of Elizabeth, in which no mention should be made of alteration of religion, nor that they were parties to the treason, until they had raised power to perform the same; and then to proclaim, all grievances in the kingdom should be reformed.
    • a. 1623, John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi
      Apply desperate physic: / We must not now use balsamum, but fire, / The smarting cupping-glass, for that's the mean / To purge infected blood, such blood as hers.
  3. Something which is intermediate or in the middle; an intermediate value or range of values; a medium. [from 14th c.]
    • 1875, William Smith and Samuel Cheetham, editors, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Little, Brown and Company, volume 1, page 10, s.v. Accentus Ecclesiasticus,
      It presents a sort of mean between speech and song, continually inclining towards the latter, never altogether leaving its hold on the former; it is speech, though always attuned speech, in passages of average interest and importance; it is song, though always distinct and articulate song, in passages demanding more fervid utterance.
  4. (music, now, historical) The middle part of three-part polyphonic music; now specifically, the alto part in polyphonic music; an alto instrument. [from 15th c.]
  5. (statistics) The average of a set of values, calculated by summing them together and dividing by the number of terms; the arithmetic mean. [from 15th c.]
  6. (mathematics) Any function of multiple variables that satisfies certain properties and yields a number representative of its arguments; or, the number so yielded; a measure of central tendency.
    • 1997, Angus Deaton, The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconometric Approach to Development Policy,[http://books.google.com/books?id=5Lp_p6bLD2IC ] World Bank Publications, ISBN 9780801852541, page 51 ↗:
      Note that (1.41) is simply the probability-weighted mean without any explicit allowance for the stratification; each observation is weighted by its inflation factor and the total divided by the total of the inflation factors for the survey.
  7. (mathematics) Either of the two numbers in the middle of a conventionally presented proportion, as 2 and 3 in 1:2=3:6.
    • 1825, Silvestre François Lacroix, translated by John Farrar, An Elementary Treatise on Arithmetic, third edition, page 102:
      ...if four numbers be in proportion, the product of the first and last, or of the two extremes, is equal to the product of the second and third, or of the two means.
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations
MEAN
Proper noun
  1. (web development) Acronym of MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, Node.js: a software stack for developing web sites with both client-side and server-side use of JavaScript.


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.004
Offline English dictionary