"mere" meaning in English

See mere in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /mɪə/ [UK], /mɪɚ/ [US] Audio: en-us-mere.ogg [US]
  1. You use mere to show how small or unimportant something is or seems to be.
    Sense id: simple-mere-en-adj-A9znNY-p Categories (other): Attributive modifiers
{
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Attributive modifiers",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "A mere 1% increase in pay made little difference."
        },
        {
          "text": "Humans sing to express feelings beyond mere words."
        },
        {
          "text": "Teachers are mere mortals with God-like tasks."
        },
        {
          "text": "The mere existence of oil and gas does not prove this is a good place to drill."
        },
        {
          "text": "The mere presence of a teacher of the student's own-race positively influences student effort."
        },
        {
          "text": "The mere mention of her name makes him angry."
        },
        {
          "text": "The mere fact that medicine is available has led to an more people coming."
        },
        {
          "text": "An artist is someone who creates something new rather than mere copies."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "You use mere to show how small or unimportant something is or seems to be."
      ],
      "id": "simple-mere-en-adj-A9znNY-p",
      "raw_tags": [
        "usually before a noun"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/mɪə/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/mI@/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/mɪɚ/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/mI@`/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-mere.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "mere"
}
{
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Attributive modifiers"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "A mere 1% increase in pay made little difference."
        },
        {
          "text": "Humans sing to express feelings beyond mere words."
        },
        {
          "text": "Teachers are mere mortals with God-like tasks."
        },
        {
          "text": "The mere existence of oil and gas does not prove this is a good place to drill."
        },
        {
          "text": "The mere presence of a teacher of the student's own-race positively influences student effort."
        },
        {
          "text": "The mere mention of her name makes him angry."
        },
        {
          "text": "The mere fact that medicine is available has led to an more people coming."
        },
        {
          "text": "An artist is someone who creates something new rather than mere copies."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "You use mere to show how small or unimportant something is or seems to be."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "usually before a noun"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/mɪə/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/mI@/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/mɪɚ/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/mI@`/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-mere.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "mere"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-20 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (db0bec0 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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