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means

noun

Form of mean , plural of mean.

Simple meaning

An instrument or condition to achieve a result.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

meenz
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈminz

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. An instrument or condition to achieve a result.

  2. uncountable

    Financial resources; wealth.

  3. Substantial wealth.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: An instrument or condition to achieve a result.

Used this way, means is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It quietly approves while staying precise.

Emotional tone
Positive
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Gentle
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Successful and accomplished
Usage feel
Precise and approving

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use means

  • “He is a man of means.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

some meanseffective meansbest means

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • meanverbBase word

    Mean or intend to express or convey.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • means grassnounCompound term

    Tall perennial grass that spreads by creeping rhizomes and is grown for fodder.

  • means testnounCompound term

    An inquiry into the financial position of someone applying for financial aid.

  • by artificial meansadverbCompound term

    Not according to nature.

  • by no meansadverbCompound term

    Definitely not.

  • man of meansnounCompound term

    A man who is wealthy.

  • ways and meansnounCompound term

    Resources available to meet expenses (especially legislation for raising revenue for a government).

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.