different between mean vs fat

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)

1. To intend.
   1. (transitive) To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention. [from 8th c.]

   2. (intransitive) To have as intentions of a given kind. [from 14th c.]

   3. (transitive, usually in passive) To intend (something) for a given purpose or fate; to predestine. [from 16th c.]

   4. (transitive) To intend an ensuing comment or statement as an explanation.[1]

2. To convey (a meaning).
   1. (transitive) To convey (a given sense); to signify, or indicate (an object or idea). [from 8th c.]
   2. (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.

   3. (transitive) Of a person (or animal etc): to intend to express, to imply, to hint at, to allude.

3. (transitive) To have conviction in (something said or expressed); to be sincere in (what one says). [from 18th c.]

4. (transitive) To cause or produce (a given result); to bring about (a given result). [from 19th c.]
5. (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)

1. (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.

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)

1. (obsolete) Common; general.
2. Of a common or low origin, grade, or quality; common; humble.

3. Low in quality or degree; inferior; poor; shabby.

4. 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?

5. 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.

6. (chiefly Britain) Ungenerous; stingy; tight-fisted.

7. Disobliging; pettily offensive or unaccommodating
8. Selfish; acting without consideration of others; unkind.

9. Intending to cause harm, successfully or otherwise; bearing ill will towards another

   Synonyms: cruel, malicious

10. Powerful; fierce; strong

    Synonyms: harsh, damaging

11. (colloquial) Accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with.

12. (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)

1. Having the mean (see noun below) as its value.
2. (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

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

mean (plural means)

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.

   • 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.

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-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.

3. 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.

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, page 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,^[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.

7. (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 ${\displaystyle {\frac {18}{27}}={\frac {2}{3}}}$, the product of the means is ${\displaystyle 2\cdot 27}$, and the product of the extremes is ${\displaystyle 18\cdot 3}$. Both products are 54.

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])

1. centre, middle

2. interior

3. 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

1. little, tiny

Synonyms

• beag
• bìodach
• meanbh
• mion

Derived terms

• mean air mhean

Mutation

Spanish

Verb

mean

1. Second-person plural (ustedes) present indicative form of mear.
2. Third-person plural (ellos, ellas, also used with ustedes^?) present indicative form of mear.

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: f?t, IPA^(key): /fæt/
• Rhymes: -æt
• Homophone: phat

Etymology 1

From Middle English fat, from Old English f?tt (“fatted, fat”), from Proto-West Germanic *faitid (“fatted”), originally the past participle of the verb *faitijan (“to make fat”), from *fait (“fat”).

Adjective

fat (comparative fatter, superlative fattest)

1. Carrying more fat than usual on one's body; plump; not lean or thin.
   • 1932, New Orleans (La.) Board of Health, Vox Sanitatis

     While Hennessey is pouring the milk, the fat guy with the big pot-belly, will come over and write a lot of junk in his little book.

   • 2014, Isabel Quintero, Gabi, a Girl in Pieces, Cinco Puntos Press (?ISBN), page 46:

     Because, really, who would like the fat girl? Sebastian said I was crazy for thinking that.

2. Thick.

   • So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

3. Bountiful.
4. Oily; greasy; unctuous; rich (said of food).
5. (obsolete) Exhibiting the qualities of a fat animal; coarse; heavy; gross; dull; stupid.
   • 1855 July 21, Ralph Waldo Emerson, letter to Walter Whitman

     making our western wits fat & mean

6. Fertile; productive.

7. Rich; producing a large income; desirable.
   • 1882, Thomas Carlyle, Reminiscences

     now parson of Troston, a fat living in Suffolk

8. Abounding in riches; affluent; fortunate.
   • , "Why Christ's Doctrine was Rejected"

     persons grown fat and wealthy by a long and successful imposture

9. (dated, printing) Of a character which enables the compositor to make large wages; said of matter containing blank, cuts, or many leads, etc.

10. (golf) Being a shot in which the ground is struck before the ball.
    • 1992, DeDe Owens, ?Linda K. Bunker, Advanced Golf: Steps to Success (page 81)

      Hitting a thin shot from a fairway bunker is more productive than hitting a fat shot.

11. (theater) Of a role: significant; major; meaty.
    • 1965, Edmund Fuller, A Pageant of the Theatre (page 131)

      He is what the theatre calls a “fat” role — a man suddenly confronted by a terrible duty. He is called upon to revenge the murder of his father and to right a wrong against the state.

    • 1997, Harold Clurman, On Directing (page 12)

      He seeks a fat role in a hit show, lest he diminish his market value.

    • 2012, Greg Robinson, ?Larry S. Tajiri, Pacific Citizens (page 9)

      Joe Hirakawa, formerly of the Seattle Civic Repertory Theatre, was a waterfront peddler in “Madame Butterfly” and had a fat role in “Beauty Parlor,” an indie.

12. Alternative form of phat (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Synonyms

• (carrying a larger than normal amount of fat): chubby, chunky, corpulent, lardy (slang), obese, overweight, plump, porky (slang), rotund, tubby, well-fed; see also Thesaurus:obese
• (thick): thick
• (bountiful): bountiful, prosperous

Antonyms

• Of sense (carrying a larger than normal amount of fat): lean, skinny, slender, slim, thin

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: fatu

Translations

Noun

fat (usually uncountable, plural fats)

1. (uncountable) A specialized animal tissue with a high oil content, used for long-term storage of energy.
2. (countable) A refined substance chemically resembling the oils in animal fat.
3. That part of an organization deemed wasteful.

4. (slang) An erection.

5. (golf) A poorly played shot where the ball is struck by the top part of the club head. (see also thin, shank, toe)
6. The best or richest productions; the best part.

7. (dated, printing) Work containing much blank, or its equivalent, and therefore profitable to the compositor.
8. (informal) A fat person.
   • 1996, Roger Stone, "Local Swing Fever", highlighted by National Enquirer in September 1996 and Daily Mail in January 2019

     Prefer military, bodybuilders, jocks. No smokers or fats please.

9. A beef cattle fattened for sale.

Synonyms

• (animal tissue): adipose tissue, lard (in animals; derogatory slang when used of human fat)
• (substance chemically resembling the oils in animal fat): grease, lard
• (fat person): fatty, fatso see also Thesaurus:fat person

Derived terms

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: fatu

Translations

See also

• fat on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Verb

fat (third-person singular simple present fats, present participle fatting, simple past and past participle fatted)

1. (transitive, archaic) To make fat; to fatten.

2. (intransitive, archaic) To become fat; to fatten.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English, from Old English fæt (“vat, vessel, jar, cup, casket, division”), from Proto-Germanic *fat? (“vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *pod- (“vessel”). Cognate with Dutch vat (“barrel, vessel”), German Fass (“barrel, drum”), Swedish fat (“barrel, dish, cask”). See vat.

Noun

fat (plural fats)

1. (obsolete) A large tub or vessel for water, wine, or other liquids; a cistern.
   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 429:

     In 1431 New College purchases brewing vessels, under the names of a mash fat, for 6s. 10d., a wort fat for 2s., a 'Gilleding' tub for 2s. 6d., and two tunning barrels at 8d. each, a leaden boiler for 24s., another for 12s., and a great copper beer pot for 13s. 4d.

2. (obsolete) A dry measure, generally equal to nine bushels.

Synonyms

• vat

Translations

Anagrams

• AFT, ATF, FTA, TAF, TFA, aft, aft-, taf

Albanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin f?tum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [fat]

Noun

fat m (indefinite plural fate, definite singular fat, definite plural fatet)

1. luck
2. chance

   Synonym: shans, rast, mundësi

3. fate
4. destiny
5. spouse

Declension

References

Buli (Indonesia)

Etymology

From Proto-Halmahera-Cenderawasih *pat, from Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *pat, from Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *?pat, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *?pat, from Proto-Austronesian *S?pat.

Numeral

fat

1. four

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?fat/
• Rhymes: -at

Etymology 1

From Latin f?tum.

Noun

fat m (uncountable)

1. fate, destiny

Related terms

• fatal

Etymology 2

From Latin fatuus.

Adjective

fat (feminine fada, masculine plural fats, feminine plural fades)

1. bland, insipid

   Synonym: insuls

Related terms

• fatu

Further reading

• “fat” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Chuukese

Adjective

fat

1. clear, transparent

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from French fat (“conceited; dandy”), from Latin fatuus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?t/
• Hyphenation: fat
• Rhymes: -?t

Noun

fat m (plural fatten or fats, diminutive fatje n)

1. dandy, a man obsessed with his looks

   Synonyms: dandy, pronker, saletjonker

Derived terms

• fatterig
• fattig

French

Etymology

From Old Occitan fat, from Latin fatuus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fa/

Adjective

fat (feminine singular fate, masculine plural fats, feminine plural fates)

1. conceited

Further reading

• “fat” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• taf

Friulian

Etymology 1

From Latin factus.

Verb

fat

1. past participle of fâ

Adjective

fat

1. done, made
2. ripe

Etymology 2

From Latin factum.

Noun

fat m (plural fats)

1. fact, deed

Related terms

• fâ
• fatôr

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse fat, from Proto-Germanic *fat?, from Proto-Indo-European *pod-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fa?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t

Noun

fat n (genitive singular fats, nominative plural föt)

1. vat
2. item of clothing

Declension

Kowiai

Etymology

From Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *?pat, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *?pat, from Proto-Austronesian *S?pat.

Numeral

fat

1. four

Ladin

Noun

fat m (plural fac)

1. fact

Derived terms

• de fat

Adjective

fat m (feminine singular fata, masculine plural fats, feminine plural fates)

1. done

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse fat

Noun

fat n (definite singular fatet, indefinite plural fat or fater, definite plural fata or fatene)

1. plate, dish
2. barrel, drum, cask

Derived terms

• tefat

References

• “fat” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f??t/ (example of pronunciation)

Etymology 1

From Old Norse fat, Proto-Germanic *fat?.

Noun

fat n (definite singular fatet, indefinite plural fat, definite plural fata)

1. plate, dish
2. barrel, drum, cask

Derived terms

• tefat
• oljefat

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

fat

1. imperative of fata and fate

References

• “fat” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old Frisian

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *fait. Cognates include Old Saxon *f?t and Old Norse feitr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fat/

Noun

fat m

1. fat

References

• Bremmer, Rolf H. (2009) An Introduction to Old Frisian: History, Grammar, Reader, Glossary, Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, ?ISBN, page 28

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *fat?.

Noun

fat n

1. vessel, cup

Declension

Slavomolisano

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian fatto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fât/

Noun

fat m

1. story
   • 2010, Rino John Gliosca, “Bonifacio en Amérique”:

Declension

References

• Breu, W., Mader Skender, M. B. & Piccoli, G. 2013. Oral texts in Molise Slavic (Italy): Acquaviva Collecroce. In Adamou, E., Breu, W., Drettas, G. & Scholze, L. (eds.). 2013. EuroSlav2010: Elektronische Datenbank bedrohter slavischer Varietäten in nichtslavophonen Ländern Europas – Base de données électronique de variétés slaves menacées dans des pays européens non slavophones. Konstanz: Universität / Paris: Lacito (Internet Publication).

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse fat, from Proto-Germanic *fat?, from Proto-Indo-European *pod-.

Pronunciation

Noun

fat n

1. saucer; a small dish
2. plate (serving dish)
3. barrel (oil or wine), cask, keg (beer)
4. barrel; a unit of volume. Usually referring to the oil barrel of 158.9873 liters

Declension

Derived terms

• (saucer): tefat
• (serving dish): serveringsfat, kakfat
• (barrel; container): fatöl

Idioms

• (about something that is, or is by others perceived as, an obstacle (physical or mental) to someone)

Tboli

Etymology

From Proto-Philippine *?pat, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *?pat, from Proto-Austronesian *S?pat.

Numeral

fat

1. four

Volapük

Etymology

From German Vater or English father.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fat/

Noun

fat (nominative plural fats)

1. father

Declension

Derived terms

• fatül
• lefat
• lüfat

Wolof

Verb

fat

1. to shelter

References

Omar Ka (2018) Nanu Dégg Wolof, National African Language Resource Center, ?ISBN, page 19

Yamdena

Alternative forms

• fate

Etymology

From Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *?pat, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *?pat, from Proto-Austronesian *S?pat.

Numeral

fat

1. four