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mean

UK/miːn/ US/miːn/ very common informal uk
verb (7) adjective (7) noun (1)

verb

1.

mean or intend to express or convey

  • “You never understand what I mean!”
  • “what do his words intend?”
Synonyms
2.

have as a logical consequence

  • “The water shortage means that we have to stop taking long showers”
Synonyms
3.

denote or connote

  • “maison”
  • “house”
  • “;”
Synonyms
4.

have in mind as a purpose

  • “I mean no harm”
  • “I only meant to help you”
  • “She didn”
  • “;”
Synonyms
5.

have a specified degree of importance

  • “My ex-husband means nothing to me”
  • “Happiness means everything”
6.

intend to refer to

  • “I”
  • “;”
Synonyms
7.

destine or designate for a certain purpose

  • “These flowers were meant for you”

adjective

1.

approximating the statistical norm or average or expected value

  • “the average income in New England is below that of the nation”
  • “of average height for his age”
  • “the mean annual rainfall”
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2.

characterized by malice

  • “a hateful thing to do”
  • “in a mean mood”
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3.

having or showing an ignoble lack of honor or morality

  • “that liberal obedience without which your army would be a base rabble” Edmund Burke
  • “taking a mean advantage”
  • “chok”
  • “- Shakespeare;”
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4.

excellent

  • “famous for a mean backhand”
Similar
5.

marked by poverty befitting a beggar

  • “a beggarly existence in the slums”
  • “a mean hut”
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6.

used of persons or behavior; characterized by or indicative of lack of generosity

  • “a mean person”
  • “he left a miserly tip”
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7.

used of sums of money; so small in amount as to deserve contempt

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noun

1.

an average of n numbers computed by adding some function of the numbers and dividing by some function of n

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English menen (“to intend; remember; lament; comfort”), from Old English mǣnan (“to mean, complain”), Proto-West Germanic *mainijan, from Proto-Germanic *mainijaną (“to mean, think; complain”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyn- (“to think”), or perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *meyno-, extended form of Proto-Indo-European *mey-. Germanic cognates include West Frisian miene (“to deem, think”) (Old Frisian mēna (“to signify”)), Dutch menen (“to believe, think, mean”) (Middle Dutch menen (“to think, intend”)), German meinen (“to think, mean, believe”), Old Saxon mēnian. Indo-European cognates include Old Irish mían (“wish, desire”) and Polish mienić (“to signify, believe”). Non-Indo-European cognates include Finnish mainita (“to mention”), Finnish meinata (“to mean, to plan, to intend”) Estonian mainima (“to mention”), Northern Sami máinnastit (“to tell”). Related to moan.

Phrases

  • absolute mean
  • and I don't mean maybe
  • arithmetic mean
  • arithmetic-geometric mean
  • Cesàro mean
  • Chisini mean
  • contraharmonic mean
  • generalised f-mean
  • generalized f-mean
  • how do you mean
  • I mean
  • if you know what I mean

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.