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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

meagre.

An edible fish, of species Argyrosomus regius, of the family Sciaenidae, found from the Black Sea to the eastern Atlantic.

6 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmiːɡəɹ/General-American/ˈmiːɡə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. An edible fish, of species Argyrosomus regius, of the family Sciaenidae, found from the Black Sea to the eastern Atlantic.

Where this word comes from

From Middle French maigre.

adj/ˈmiːɡəɹ/General-American/ˈmiːɡə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. Having little flesh; lean; thin.

    Canada · UK · common
  2. Deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent

    Canada · UK · common
    Nothing will grow in this meagre soil.
    He was given a meagre piece of cake that he swallowed in one bite.
  3. Of a set: such that, considered as a subset of a (usually larger) topological space, it is in a precise sense small or negligible.

    Canada · UK · common
  4. Dry and harsh to the touch (e.g., as chalk).

    Canada · UK · common
Where this word comes from

From Middle English megre, borrowed from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer, macrum, from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱrós. Cognate with Old English mæġer (“meagre, lean”), Dutch mager (“lean”), German mager (“lean”), Icelandic magur (“lean”).

verb/ˈmiːɡəɹ/General-American/ˈmiːɡə/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To make lean.

    Canada · UK · common · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English megre, borrowed from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer, macrum, from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱrós. Cognate with Old English mæġer (“meagre, lean”), Dutch mager (“lean”), German mager (“lean”), Icelandic magur (“lean”).

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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.