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mere

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

mir
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmɪɹ

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.

adjective

  1. Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.

noun

  1. Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line.

  2. A village and civil parish in northern Cheshire East district, Cheshire, England (OS grid ref SJ7381).

  3. A small town and civil parish with a town council in south-west Wiltshire, England (OS grid ref ST8132).

  4. A sub-municipality in East Flanders, Belgium.

  5. A Maori war-club.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.

Used this way, mere is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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

More ways to use mere

  • “It was a mere coincidence that we met at the airport.”

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

mere factmere mattermere wordsmere chancemere thoughtmere actmere accidentmere child

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • merelyadverbDerived adverb

    And nothing more.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: just or only

simpleArchaic

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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.