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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mire.

Deep mud; moist, spongy earth.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmaɪə/UK/ˈmaɪɚ/US/ˈmaɪɹ/US

  1. Deep mud; moist, spongy earth.

    countable · uncountable

  2. A bog or fen; (in wetland science, specifically) a peatland which is actively forming peat, such as an active bog or fen.

    countable · uncountable

  3. An undesirable situation; a predicament.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mire, a borrowing from Old Norse mýrr, from Proto-Germanic *miuzijō, whence also Swedish myr, Norwegian myr, Icelandic mýri, Dutch *mier (in placenames, for example Mierlo). Related to Proto-Germanic *meusą, whence Old English mēos, and Proto-Germanic *musą, whence Old English mos (English moss).

verb/ˈmaɪə/UK/ˈmaɪɚ/US/ˈmaɪɹ/US

  1. To cause or permit to become stuck in mud; to plunge or fix in mud.

    transitive
    to mire a horse or wagon

  2. To sink into mud.

    intransitive

  3. To weigh down.

    figuratively · transitive

  4. To soil with mud or foul matter.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mire, a borrowing from Old Norse mýrr, from Proto-Germanic *miuzijō, whence also Swedish myr, Norwegian myr, Icelandic mýri, Dutch *mier (in placenames, for example Mierlo). Related to Proto-Germanic *meusą, whence Old English mēos, and Proto-Germanic *musą, whence Old English mos (English moss).

noun/ˈmaɪə/UK/ˈmaɪɚ/US/ˈmaɪɹ/US

  1. An ant.

    obsolete · rare
Where this word comes from

From Middle English mire, myre, from Old English *mīere, from Proto-West Germanic *miurijā, from Proto-Germanic *miurijǭ (“ant”), from Proto-Indo-European *morwís (“ant”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian miir (“ant”), Dutch mier (“ant”), Low German Miere (“ant”), Danish myre (“ant”), Faroese meyra (“ant”), Icelandic and Norwegian Bokmål maur (“ant”), Norwegian Nynorsk maur, møvver (“ant”), Swedish myra (“ant”), Crimean Gothic miera (“ant”), Finnish muurahainen (“ant”), Ingrian muurahain (“ant”); also Breton merien (“ants”), Cornish moryon (“ants”), Old Irish moirb (“ant”), Welsh mŷr (“ant”), Latin formīca, furmīca (“ant”), Greek μερμήγκι (mermígki), μυρμήγκι (myrmígki, “ant”), Albanian morr (“louse; aphid”), Belarusian мура́шка (muráška, “ant”), Bulgarian мрав (mrav), мра́вка (mrávka, “ant”), Czech brabenec, mravenec (“ant”), Kashubian marwa, mrówka (“ant”), Lower Sorbian mroja (“ant”), Macedonian мра́ва (mráva), мра́вка (mrávka, “ant”), Pannonian Rusyn брамушка (bramuška), ґрамушка (gramuška, “ant”), Polish mrówka (“ant”), Russian мураве́й (muravéj, “ant”), Serbo-Croatian мрав, mrav (“ant”), Slovak mravec (“ant”), Slovene mravlja (“ant”), Ukrainian мура́ха (muráxa, “ant”), Upper Sorbian mrowja (“ant”), Armenian մրջյուն (mrǰyun, “ant”), Baluchi مور (mor, “ant”), Central Kurdish مێروو (mêrû), مێروولە (mêrûle, “ant”), Northern Kurdish mûrî (“ant”), Ossetian мӕлдзыг (mælʒyg, “ant”), Persian مور (mōr / mur, “ant”), مورچه (mōrča / murče, “ant; hole; trench”), Sanskrit वम्र (vamra, “ant”).

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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.