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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

demure.

Modest, quiet, reserved, or serious.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/dɪˈmjʊə(ɹ)/Received-Pronunciation/dəˈmjɔː(ɹ)/British, Southern, Standard/dɪˈmjɵː(ɹ)/British, Southern, Standard/dɪˈmjʊə(ɹ)/British, Southern, Standard

  1. Modest, quiet, reserved, or serious.

    She is a demure young lady.

  2. Affectedly modest, decorous, or serious; making a show of gravity.

Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English demure, demwre, an abbreviation of Anglo-Norman de mure port (“with a mature demeanor”) (compare Old French meur from Latin mātūrus): *si il seyt coy e de mure port (Amur curteiz) (“he sits quietly and with a mature appearance”) * Documents illustrating the history of Scotland, CLV, 1306, Orders for the custody of Scottish prisoners, CLV: …et que eles soient de bon et meur port (“…with a good and mature demeanor”) * mss. Arundel, 220: ke cely qe vus amerez soyt de gentil manere, coy, de meure porture (“with a mature demeanor”) * (Monastic rule): de aunciene dame de meure porture ke pusse les plus ieuenes rieueler e endoctriner (“an old lady with a mature demeanor able to rule and educate the young girls”).

verb/dɪˈmjʊə(ɹ)/Received-Pronunciation/dəˈmjɔː(ɹ)/British, Southern, Standard/dɪˈmjɵː(ɹ)/British, Southern, Standard/dɪˈmjʊə(ɹ)/British, Southern, Standard

  1. To look demurely.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English demure, demwre, an abbreviation of Anglo-Norman de mure port (“with a mature demeanor”) (compare Old French meur from Latin mātūrus): *si il seyt coy e de mure port (Amur curteiz) (“he sits quietly and with a mature appearance”) * Documents illustrating the history of Scotland, CLV, 1306, Orders for the custody of Scottish prisoners, CLV: …et que eles soient de bon et meur port (“…with a good and mature demeanor”) * mss. Arundel, 220: ke cely qe vus amerez soyt de gentil manere, coy, de meure porture (“with a mature demeanor”) * (Monastic rule): de aunciene dame de meure porture ke pusse les plus ieuenes rieueler e endoctriner (“an old lady with a mature demeanor able to rule and educate the young girls”).

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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.