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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

demean.

To debase; to lower; to degrade.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/dɪˈmiːn/UK
  1. To debase; to lower; to degrade.

    transitive
  2. To humble; to humiliate.

    transitive
  3. To mortify.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

(1595) From de- + mean (“lowly, base, common”), from Middle English mene, aphetic variation of imene (“mean, base, common”), from Old English ġemǣne (“mean, common”). Compare English bemean.

verb/dɪˈmiːn/UK
  1. To manage; to conduct; to treat.

    obsolete · transitive
  2. To conduct; to behave; to comport; followed by the reflexive pronoun.

    archaic · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English demenen, demeinen, from Anglo-Norman demener, from Old French demener, from de- + mener (“to conduct, lead”), from Latin mināre, from minārī (“to threaten”).

noun/dɪˈmiːn/UK
  1. Management; treatment.

    obsolete · transitive · uncountable · usually
  2. Behavior; conduct; bearing; demeanor.

    obsolete · transitive · uncountable · usually
Where this word comes from

From Middle English demenen, demeinen, from Anglo-Norman demener, from Old French demener, from de- + mener (“to conduct, lead”), from Latin mināre, from minārī (“to threaten”).

noun/dɪˈmiːn/UK
  1. demesne.

    transitive
  2. resources; means.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Variant of demesne.

verb/ˌdiːˈmiːn//dɪˈmiːn/UK
  1. To subtract the mean from (a value, or every observation in a data set).

    transitive
Where this word comes from

de- + mean

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.