different between mean vs abominable
mean
English
Pronunciation
- enPR: m?n, IPA(key): /mi?n/
- Rhymes: -i?n
- Homophone: mien
Etymology 1
From Middle English menen (“to intend; remember; lament; comfort”), from Old English m?nan (“to mean, signify; lament”), from Proto-Germanic *mainijan? (“to mean, think; lament”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyn- (“to think”).
Germanic cognates include West Frisian miene (“to deem, think”) (Old Frisian m?na (“signify”)), Dutch menen (“to believe, think, mean”) (Middle Dutch menen (“think, intend”)), German meinen (“to think, mean, believe”), Old Saxon m?nian. Indo-European cognates include Old Irish mían (“wish, desire”) and Polish mieni? (“signify, believe”). Related to moan.
Verb
mean (third-person singular simple present means, present participle meaning, simple past and past participle meant)
- To intend.
- (transitive) To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention. [from 8th c.]
- (intransitive) To have as intentions of a given kind. [from 14th c.]
- (transitive, usually in passive) To intend (something) for a given purpose or fate; to predestine. [from 16th c.]
- (transitive) To intend an ensuing comment or statement as an explanation.[1]
- (transitive) To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention. [from 8th c.]
- To convey (a meaning).
- (transitive) To convey (a given sense); to signify, or indicate (an object or idea). [from 8th c.]
- (transitive) Of a word, symbol etc: to have reference to, to signify. [from 8th c.]
- A 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.
- (transitive) Of a person (or animal etc): to intend to express, to imply, to hint at, to allude.
- (transitive) To convey (a given sense); to signify, or indicate (an object or idea). [from 8th c.]
- (transitive) To have conviction in (something said or expressed); to be sincere in (what one says). [from 18th c.]
- (transitive) To cause or produce (a given result); to bring about (a given result). [from 19th c.]
- (usually with to) To be of some level of importance.
- That little dog meant everything to me.
- This shared cup of coffee means something to us.
- Formality and titles mean nothing in their circle.
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
Derived terms
- I mean
Translations
Verb
mean (third-person singular simple present means, present participle meaning, simple past and past participle meaned)
- (Ireland, Britain regional) To lament.
- c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, III:
- Thanne morned Mede · and mened hire to the kynge / To haue space to speke · spede if she my?te.
- 1560 (1677), Spottiswood Hist. Ch. Scot. iii. (1677), page 144:
- They were forced to mean our estate to the Queen of England.
- 1845, Wodrow Society Select Biographies:
- All the tyme of his sickness he never said, "Alace!" or meaned any pain, whilk was marvellous. Never man died in greater peace of mind or body.
- c. 1385, William Langland, Piers Plowman, III:
Translations
Etymology 2
From Middle English mene, imene, from Old English m?ne, ?em?ne (“common, public, general, universal”), from Proto-West Germanic *gamain?, from Proto-Germanic *gamainiz (“common”), from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to change, exchange, share”).
Cognate with West Frisian mien (“general, universal”), Dutch gemeen (“common, mean”), German gemein (“common, mean, nasty”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (gamains, “common, unclean”), Latin comm?nis (“shared, common, general”) (Old Latin comoinem).
Adjective
mean (comparative meaner, superlative meanest)
- (obsolete) Common; general.
- Of a common or low origin, grade, or quality; common; humble.
- Low in quality or degree; inferior; poor; shabby.
- Without dignity of mind; destitute of honour; low-minded; spiritless; base.
- Ivanhoe (1952 film)
- Prince John: "Your foe has bloodied you, sir knight. Will you concede defeat? You fight too well to die so mean a death. Will you not throw in your lot with me instead?
- Ivanhoe: "That would be an even meaner death, Your Grace."
- a mean motive
- 1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour
- Can you imagine I so mean could prove, / To save my life by changing of my love?
- Ivanhoe (1952 film)
- Of little value or worth; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable.
- 1708, John Philips, Cyder
- The Roman legions and great Caesar found / Our fathers no mean foes.
- 1708, John Philips, Cyder
- (chiefly Britain) Ungenerous; stingy; tight-fisted.
- Disobliging; pettily offensive or unaccommodating
- Selfish; acting without consideration of others; unkind.
- Intending to cause harm, successfully or otherwise; bearing ill will towards another
- Synonyms: cruel, malicious
- Powerful; fierce; strong
- Synonyms: harsh, damaging
- (colloquial) Accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with.
- (informal, often childish) Difficult, tricky.
Synonyms
- (intending to cause harm, successfully or otherwise): cruel, malicious, nasty, spiteful
- (miserly; stingy): See also Thesaurus:stingy
- (low-minded; acting without consideration of others): base, ignoble, selfish, unkind, vile
- (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)
Antonyms
- (low-minded; acting without consideration of others): lofty, noble, honorable
Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 3
From Middle English meene, borrowed from Old French meien (French moyen), Late Latin medi?nus (“that is in the middle, middle”), from Latin medius (“middle”). Cognate with mid. For the musical sense, compare the cognate Italian mezzano. Doublet of median and mizzen.
Adjective
mean (not comparable)
- Having the mean (see noun below) as its value.
- (obsolete) Middling; intermediate; moderately good, tolerable.
- , 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 […].
- being of middle age and a mean stature
- , II.ii.2:
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
Noun
mean (plural means)
- (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.
- c. 1812, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Essays
- You may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquirements.
- 1860, William Hamilton, Lectures on Metaphysics
- Philosophical 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.
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.5:
- (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-Plot
- That 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, The Duchess of Malfi
- 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.
- a. 1563, Thomas Harding, "To the Reader", in The Works of John Jewel (1845 ed.)
- Something which is intermediate or in the middle; an intermediate value or range of values; a medium. [from 14th c.]
- 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.
- 1875, William Smith and Samuel Cheetham, editors, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities, Little, Brown and Company, volume 1, page 10, s.v. Accentus Ecclesiasticus,
- (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, page 147:
- Of these [rattles] they have Base, Tenor, Countertenor, Meane, and Treble.
- 1624, John Smith, Generall Historie, in Kupperman 1988, page 147:
- (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.]
- (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,[3] World Bank Publications, ?ISBN, page 51:
- 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,[4] Cambridge University Press, ?ISBN, page 246:
- 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,[5] Springer, ?ISBN, page 251:
- The generalized power means include power means, certain Gini means, in particular the counter-harmonic means.
- 1997, Angus Deaton, The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconometric Approach to Development Policy,[3] World Bank Publications, ?ISBN, page 51:
- (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, 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, page 99,
- In , the product of the means is , and the product of the extremes is . Both products are 54.
- 1825, John Farrar, translator, An Elementary Treatise on Arithmetic by Silvestre François Lacroix, third edition, page 102,
Hypernyms
- (statistics): measure of central tendency, measure of location, sample statistic
Coordinate terms
- (statistics): median, mode
Derived terms
Translations
See also
- (statistics): spread, range
Further reading
- mean at OneLook Dictionary Search
- mean in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Anagrams
- -mane, -nema, Amen, Eman, Enma, MENA, Mena, NAmE, NEMA, NMEA, amen, mane, mnae, name, namé, neam, ñame
Manx
Etymology
From Old Irish medón (“middle, centre”), from Latin medi?nus.
Noun
mean m (genitive singular [please provide], plural [please provide])
- centre, middle
- interior
- average
Derived terms
- meanagh (“center, central; intermediate; centric, centrical”, adj)
- mean scoill (“secondary school, college”)
Mutation
Scottish Gaelic
Etymology
From Old Irish menbach (“small”), from a Proto-Celtic derivation of the root *mey- (“small, little”). Cognate with Latin minus, minor, minutus and Ancient Greek ?????? (minúth?, “lessen”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /m?n/
Adjective
mean
- little, tiny
Synonyms
- beag
- bìodach
- meanbh
- mion
Derived terms
- mean air mhean
Mutation
Spanish
Verb
mean
- Second-person plural (ustedes) present indicative form of mear.
- Third-person plural (ellos, ellas, also used with ustedes?) present indicative form of mear.
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abominable
English
Etymology
From Middle English abhomynable, from Old French abominable, from Late Latin ab?min?bilis (“deserving abhorrence”), from ab?minor (“abhor, deprecate as an ill omen”), from ab (“from, away from”) + ?minor (“forebode, predict, presage”), from ?men (“sign, token, omen”). Formerly erroneously folk-etymologized as deriving from Latin ab- + homo and therefore spelled abhominable, abhominal; see those entries for more.
Pronunciation
- (US) IPA(key): /??b?m.?.n?.bl?/, /??b?m.n?.bl?/
- (General New Zealand) IPA(key): /??b?m.?.n?.b?/
Adjective
abominable (comparative more abominable, superlative most abominable)
- Worthy of, or causing, abhorrence, as a thing of evil omen; odious in the utmost degree; very hateful; detestable; loathsome; execrable. [first attested around 1150 to 1350]
- (obsolete) Excessive, large (used as an intensifier).
- Very bad or inferior.
- Disagreeable or unpleasant. [First attested in the late 19th century.]
Usage notes
- Nouns to which "abominable" is often applied: man, woman, crime, act, deed, sin, vice, character, place, mystery, treatment, church, bride, snowman.
Alternative forms
- abhominable (obsolete, based on folk etymology), abhominal (obsolete, based on folk etymology)
Derived terms
Related terms
Descendants
- ? Norwegian Bokmål: abominabel
Translations
References
- abominable in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- abominable in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- abominable at OneLook Dictionary Search
Catalan
Etymology
From Late Latin ab?min?bilis.
Pronunciation
- (Balearic) IPA(key): /?.bo.mi?na.bl?/
- (Central) IPA(key): /?.bu.mi?na.bl?/
- (Valencian) IPA(key): /a.bo.mi?na.ble/
- Rhymes: -a?le
Adjective
abominable (masculine and feminine plural abominables)
- abominable
Derived terms
- abominablement
Related terms
- abominar
- abominació
French
Etymology
From Late Latin ab?min?bilis (“abominable, detestable”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /a.b?.mi.nabl/
- Homophone: abominables
Adjective
abominable (plural abominables)
- Absolutely loathsome; abominable.
- Exceedingly bad or ugly; abominable.
Synonyms
- Most terms of the second category also have literal meanings closer to that of the first, but are now less common in these uses, as well as marking actions that are not as markedly odious.
- (loathsome): odieux, méprisable, ignoble, sacrilège (religious), impie (religious)
- (exceedingly bad or ugly): laid, détestable, exécrable, horrible
Derived terms
- abominable homme des neiges
- abominablement
Further reading
- “abominable” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Galician
Alternative forms
- abominábel
Etymology
From Late Latin ab?min?bilis.
Adjective
abominable m or f (plural abominables)
- abominable
Related terms
- abominación
- abominar
Further reading
- “abominable” in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega, Royal Galician Academy.
Middle English
Adjective
abominable
- Alternative form of abhomynable
Norwegian Bokmål
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ab?m??n??bl?/
- Rhymes: -??bl?
- Hyphenation: a?bo?mi?na?ble
Adjective
abominable
- definite singular of abominabel
- plural of abominabel
Spanish
Etymology
From Late Latin ab?min?bilis.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /abomi?nable/, [a.??o.mi?na.??le]
Adjective
abominable (plural abominables)
- abominable
Derived terms
Related terms
- abominar
- abominado
Further reading
- “abominable” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.
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