mere.
Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.
Meaning & usage
Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.
The mere thought of pineapple on pizza makes me want to throw up.
The mere suggestion that the queen’s brother tried to kill your boy would be considered treason.
Pure, unalloyed .
Nothing less than; complete, downright .
Where this word comes from
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 Old English mǣre (“famous, great, excellent, sublime, splendid, pure, sterling”), from Proto-West Germanic *mārī, from Proto-Germanic *mērijaz.
Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English mere, from Old English mǣre, ġemǣre (“boundary; limit”), from Proto-Germanic *mairiją (“boundary”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to fence”). Cognate with Dutch meer (“a limit, boundary”), Icelandic mærr (“borderland”), Swedish landamäre (“border, borderline, boundary”).
To limit; bound; divide or cause division in.
To set divisions and bounds.
To decide upon the position of a boundary; to position it on a map.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English mere, from Old English mǣre, ġemǣre (“boundary; limit”), from Proto-Germanic *mairiją (“boundary”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to fence”). Cognate with Dutch meer (“a limit, boundary”), Icelandic mærr (“borderland”), Swedish landamäre (“border, borderline, boundary”).
Synonym of sea, a large body of salt water.
Synonym of inlet, an arm of the sea.
A body of standing water, inclusive of lakes, ponds, and pools, especially any broad and shallow one.
Synonym of marsh.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English mere, from Old English mere (“lake, pool,” in compounds and poetry “sea”), from Proto-West Germanic *mari (“sea”), from Proto-Germanic *mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri. Cognate with West Frisian mar, 'lake', Dutch meer, 'lake', Low German Meer, and German Meer, 'sea'. Non-Germanic cognates include Latin mare, Breton mor, and Russian мо́ре (móre). Doublet of maar and mare (“a large, dark plain; a lake on Titan”).
A Maori war-club.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Māori mere (“more”).
Alternative form of mayor and mair.
Where this word comes from
See mayor.
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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.