overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mermaid.

A mythological creature with a woman's head and upper body, and a tail of a fish.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmɜːˌmeɪd/UK/ˈmɝ.meɪd/US
  1. A mythological creature with a woman's head and upper body, and a tail of a fish.

  2. Coloured a brilliant turquoise.

    a mermaid smoothie
    mermaid ice-cream
  3. A prostitute.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mermayde (“maid of the sea”), from mere (“sea, lake”) + maid, equivalent to mer- + maid. Cognate with Dutch meermeid (“mermaid”), Middle High German mermaget, mermeit (“mermaid”, > German Meermagd, Meermädchen (“mermaid”)). Compare Old English meremenn, meremennen, meremenin (“mermaid, siren”).

FROM WORD TO NAME

Try it on your idea.

mermaid has 7 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.

mermaid studiomermaid workshello, mermaid

These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.

Explore the name generator

A word with a source.

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.