Mean

Pronunciation

• enPR: mÄ“n, IPA: /miːn/
• Rhymes: -iːn
• Homophones: mien

From Middle English menen, from Old English mǣnan ("to mean, signify, consider"), from Proto-Germanic *mainijaną ("to mean, think"), from Proto-Indo-European *mein- ("to think"). Cognate with West Frisian miene ("to deem, think"), Dutch menen ("to believe, think, mean"), German meinen ("to think, mean, believe"). Related to mind and German Minne ("love").

Full definition of mean

Verb

1. To intend.
1. (transitive) To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention. from 8th c.
   I didn't mean to knock your tooth out.
   I mean to go to Baddeck this summer.
   I meant to take the car in for a smog check, but it slipped my mind.
2. (intransitive) To have intentions of a given kind. from 14th c.
   Don't be angry; she meant well.
3. (transitive, usually in passive) To intend (something) for a given purpose or fate; to predestine. from 16th c.
   Actually this desk was meant for the subeditor.
   Man was not meant to question such things.
2. To convey meaning.
1. (transitive) To convey (a given sense); to signify, or indicate (an object or idea). from 8th c.
   I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean.
   The sky is red this morning—does that mean we're in for a storm?
• 2013-06-01, A better waterworks, An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.
2. (transitive) Of a word, symbol etc: to have reference to, to signify. from 8th c.
   What does this hieroglyph mean?
• 2010, Alexander Humez, Nicholas Humez, Rob Flynn, Short Cuts: A Guide to Oaths, Ring Tones, Ransom Notes, Famous Last Words, and Other Forms of Minimalist CommunicationA term should be included if it's likely that someone would run across it and want to know what it means. This in turn leads to the somewhat more formal guideline of including a term if it is attested and idiomatic.
3. (transitive) To have conviction in (something said or expressed); to be sincere in (what one says). from 18th c.
   Does she really mean what she said to him last night?
   Say what you mean and mean what you say.
4. (transitive) To result in; to bring about. from 19th c.
   One faltering step means certain death.
• 2012, May 19, Paul fletcher, Blackpool 1-2 West Ham, It was a goal that meant West Ham won on their first appearance at Wembley in 31 years, in doing so becoming the first team since Leicester in 1996 to bounce straight back to the Premier League through the play-offs.
• 2014-06-14, It's a gas, One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains....But out of sight is out of mind. And that, together with the inherent yuckiness of the subject, means that many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair.
5. (transitive) To be important (to). from 19th c.
   My home life means a lot to me.

Synonyms

• (convey, signify, indicate): convey, indicate, signify
• (want or intend to convey): imply, mean to say
• (intend; plan on doing): intend
• (have conviction in what one says): be serious
• (have intentions of a some kind):
• (result in; bring about): bring about, cause, lead to, result in

From Middle English mene, imene, from Old English mǣne, ġemǣne ("common, public, general, universal"), from Proto-Germanic *gamainiz ("common"), from Proto-Indo-European *mei- ("to change, exchange, share"). Cognate with West Frisian mien ("general, universal"), Dutch gemeen ("common, mean"), German gemein ("common, mean, nasty"), Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (gamains, "common, unclean"), Latin commūnis ("shared, common, general") (Old Latin comoinem).

Adjective

1. (obsolete) Common; general.
2. Of a common or low origin, grade, or quality; common; humble.
   a man of mean parentage / a mean abode
3. Low in quality or degree; inferior; poor; shabby.
   a mean appearance / mean dress
4. Without dignity of mind; destitute of honour; low-minded; spiritless; base.a mean motive
• DrydenCan you imagine I so mean could prove,
  To save my life by changing of my love?
5. Of little value or account; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable.
• J. PhilipsThe Roman legions and great Caesar found
  Our fathers no mean foes.
6. Niggardly; penurious; miserly; stingy.
   He's so mean. I've never seen him spend so much as five pounds on presents for his children.
7. Of little value or account; low in worth or estimation; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable.
8. Disobliging; pettily offensive or unaccommodating; small.
9. Selfish; acting without consideration of others; unkind.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 20, The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.
10. It was mean to steal the girl's piggy bank, but he just had to get uptown and he had no cash of his own.
11. Causing or intending to cause intentional harm; bearing ill will towards another; cruel; malicious.
    Watch out for her, she's mean. I said good morning to her, and she punched me in the nose.
12. Powerful; fierce; harsh; damaging.
    It must have been a mean typhoon that levelled this town.
13. Accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with.
    Your mother can roll a mean cigarette.
    He hits a mean backhand.
14. (informal, often childish) Difficult, tricky.
    This problem is mean!

Synonyms

• (causing or intending to cause intentional harm): cruel, malicious, nasty, spiteful
• (miserly; stingy) See also
• (acting without consideration of others): selfish, unkind
• (powerful): damaging, fierce, harsh, strong
• (accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with): deft, skilful (UK), skillful (US), top-notch
• (inferior): cheap, grotty slang, inferior, low-quality, naff (UK slang), rough and ready, shoddy, tacky informal

Derived terms

• meandom
• meanie
• meanness
• meany

From Middle English meene, from Old French meien (French moyen), Late Latin mediānus ("that is in the middle, middle"), from Latin medius ("middle"). Cognate with mid.

Adjective

1. Having the mean (see noun below) as its value.
2. (obsolete) Middling; intermediate; moderately good, tolerable.
• 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.ii.2:I have declared in the causes what harm costiveness hath done in procuring this disease; if it be so noxious, the opposite must needs be good, or mean at least, as indeed it is ....
• Sir Philip Sidneybeing of middle age and a mean stature
• Miltonaccording to the fittest style of lofty, mean, or lowly

Derived terms

Related terms

• medium
• mediate
• mediation
• mediator
• median
• mediocre
• mediocrity

Noun

1. (now chiefly in the plural) A method or course of action used to achieve some result. from 14th c.
• 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.5:To say truth, it is a meane full of uncertainty and danger.
• ColeridgeYou may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquirements.
• Sir W. HamiltonPhilosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean.
• 2011, "Rival visions", The Economist, 14 Apr 2011:Mr Obama produced an only slightly less ambitious goal for deficit reduction than the House Republicans, albeit working from a more forgiving baseline: $4 trillion over 12 years compared to $4.4 trillion over 10 years. But the means by which he would achieve it are very different.
2. (obsolete, in the singular) An intermediate step or intermediate steps.
• a. 1563, Thomas Harding, "To the Reader", in The Works of John Jewel (1845 ed.)Verily in this treatise this hath been mine only purpose; and the mean to bring the same to effect hath been such as whereby I studied to profit wholesomely, not to please delicately.
• 1606, The Trials of Robert Winter, Thomas Winter, Guy Fawkes, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Rob. Keyes, Thomas Bates, and Sir Everard Digby, at Westminster, for High Treason, being Conspirators in the Gunpowder-PlotThat it was lawful and meritorious to kill and destroy the king, and all the said hereticks. — The mean to effect it, they concluded to be, that, 1. The king, the queen, the prince, the lords spiritual and temporal, the knights and burgoses of the parliament, should be blown up with powder. 2. That the whole royal issue male should be destroyed. S. That they would lake into their custody Elizabeth and Mary the king's daughters, and proclaim the lady Elizabeth queen. 4. That they should feign a Proclamation in the name of Elizabeth, in which no mention should be made of alteration of religion, nor that they were parties to the treason, until they had raised power to perform the same; and then to proclaim, all grievances in the kingdom should be reformed.
• a. 1623, John Webster, Apply desperate physic:
  We must not now use balsamum, but fire,
  The smarting cupping-glass, for that's the mean
  To purge infected blood, such blood as hers.
3. Something which is intermediate or in the middle; an intermediate value or range of values; a medium. from 14th c.
• 1997, John Llewelyn Davies, Republic, Then will not this constitution be a kind of mean between aristocracy and oligarchy?
• 1996, Harris Rackham, The Nicomachean Ethics, as a mean, it implies certain extremes between which it lies, namely the more and the less
• 1875, William Smith and Samuel Cheetham, editors, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Little, Brown and Company, volume 1, page 10, s.v. Accentus Ecclesiasticus,It presents a sort of mean between speech and song, continually inclining towards the latter, never altogether leaving its hold on the former; it is speech, though always attuned speech, in passages of average interest and importance; it is song, though always distinct and articulate song, in passages demanding more fervid utterance.
4. (music, now historical) The middle part of three-part polyphonic music; now specifically, the alto part in polyphonic music; an alto instrument. from 15th c.
• 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, p. 147:Of these rattles they have Base, Tenor, Countertenor, Meane, and Treble.
5. (statistics) The average of a set of values, calculated by summing them together and dividing by the number of terms; the arithmetic mean. from 15th c.
6. (mathematics) Any function of multiple variables that satisfies certain properties and yields a number representative of its arguments; or, the number so yielded; a measure of central tendency.
• 1997, Angus Deaton, The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconometric Approach to Development Policy,

• Note that (1.41) is simply the probability-weighted mean without any explicit allowance for the stratification; each observation is weighted by its inflation factor and the total divided by the total of the inflation factors for the survey.
• 2002, Clifford A. Pickover, The Mathematics of Oz: Mental Gymnastics from Beyond the Edge,

• Luckily, even though the arithmetic mean is unusable, both the harmonic and geometric means settle to precise values as the amount of data increases.
• 2003, P. S. Bullen, Handbook of Means and Their Inequalities,

• The generalized power means include power means, certain Gini means, in particular the counter-harmonic means.
1. (mathematics) Either of the two numbers in the middle of a conventionally presented proportion, as 2 and 3 in 1:2=3:6.
• 1825, John Farrar, translator, An Elementary Treatise on Arithmetic by Silvestre François Lacroix, third edition, page 102,...if four numbers be in proportion, the product of the first and last, or of the two extremes, is equal to the product of the second and third, or of the two means.
• 1999, Dawn B. Sova, How to Solve Word Problems in Geometry, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 007134652X, page 85,Using the means-extremes property of proportions, you know that the product of the extremes equals the product of the means. The ratio t/4 = 5/2 can be rewritten as t:4 = 5:2, in which the extremes are t and 2, and the means are 4 and 5.
• 2007, Carolyn C. Wheater, Homework Helpers: Geometry, Career Press, ISBN 1564147215, page 99,In $$

Hypernyms

• (statistics) measure of central tendency, measure of location, sample statistic

Coordinate terms

• (statistics) median, mode

Derived terms

From Middle English menen, from Old English mǣnan ("to complain about, lament, mourn, grieve"), from Proto-Germanic *mainijaną ("to be outraged, suffer harm"), Proto-Germanic *mainą ("deceit, falsehood, shame, sin, crime, perjury"), from Proto-Indo-European *(e)meyə-, *mei- ("to change"). Related to Old English mān ("wickedness, crime, sin, perjury"), Dutch meineed ("perjury"), German Meineid ("perjury"), Danish men ("injury"); see moan.

Verb

1. (now Ireland, UK regional) To complain, lament.
2. (now Ireland, UK regional) To pity; to comfort.
• 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XII:Anone he meaned hym, and wolde have had hym home unto his ermytage.

Anagrams

• Amen, amen, mane, MENA, NAmE, name, NEMA, NMEA