Search Result for "mean": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (1)

1. an average of n numbers computed by adding some function of the numbers and dividing by some function of n;
[syn: mean, mean value]


VERB (7)

1. mean or intend to express or convey;
- Example: "You never understand what I mean!"
- Example: "what do his words intend?"
[syn: mean, intend]

2. have as a logical consequence;
- Example: "The water shortage means that we have to stop taking long showers"
[syn: entail, imply, mean]

3. denote or connote;
- Example: "`maison' means `house' in French"
- Example: "An example sentence would show what this word means"
[syn: mean, intend, signify, stand for]

4. have in mind as a purpose;
- Example: "I mean no harm"
- Example: "I only meant to help you"
- Example: "She didn't think to harm me"
- Example: "We thought to return early that night"
[syn: intend, mean, think]

5. have a specified degree of importance;
- Example: "My ex-husband means nothing to me"
- Example: "Happiness means everything"

6. intend to refer to;
- Example: "I'm thinking of good food when I talk about France"
- Example: "Yes, I meant you when I complained about people who gossip!"
[syn: think of, have in mind, mean]

7. destine or designate for a certain purpose;
- Example: "These flowers were meant for you"


ADJECTIVE (8)

1. approximating the statistical norm or average or expected value;
- Example: "the average income in New England is below that of the nation"
- Example: "of average height for his age"
- Example: "the mean annual rainfall"
[syn: average, mean(a)]

2. characterized by malice;
- Example: "a hateful thing to do"
- Example: "in a mean mood"
[syn: hateful, mean]

3. having or showing an ignoble lack of honor or morality;
- Example: "that liberal obedience without which your army would be a base rabble"- Edmund Burke
- Example: "taking a mean advantage"
- Example: "chok'd with ambition of the meaner sort"- Shakespeare
- Example: "something essentially vulgar and meanspirited in politics"
[syn: base, mean, meanspirited]

4. excellent;
- Example: "famous for a mean backhand"

5. marked by poverty befitting a beggar;
- Example: "a beggarly existence in the slums"
- Example: "a mean hut"
[syn: beggarly, mean]

6. (used of persons or behavior) characterized by or indicative of lack of generosity;
- Example: "a mean person"
- Example: "he left a miserly tip"
[syn: mean, mingy, miserly, tight]

7. (used of sums of money) so small in amount as to deserve contempt;
[syn: beggarly, mean]

8. of no value or worth;
- Example: "I was caught in the bastardly traffic"
[syn: bastardly, mean]


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Mean \Mean\, v. i. To have a purpose or intention. [Rare, except in the phrase to mean well, or ill.] --Shak. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Mean \Mean\ (m[=e]n), a. [Compar. Meaner (m[=e]n"[~e]r); superl. Meanest.] [OE. mene, AS. m[=ae]ne wicked; akin to m[=a]n, a., wicked, n., wickedness, OS. m[=e]n wickedness, OHG. mein, G. meineid perjury, Icel. mein harm, hurt, and perh. to AS. gem[=ae]ne common, general, D. gemeen, G. gemein, Goth. gam['a]ins, and L. communis. The AS. gem[=ae]ne prob. influenced the meaning.] [1913 Webster] 1. Destitute of distinction or eminence; common; low; vulgar; humble. "Of mean parentage." --Sir P. Sidney. [1913 Webster] The mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself. --Is. ii. 9. [1913 Webster] 2. Wanting dignity of mind; low-minded; base; destitute of honor; spiritless; as, a mean motive. [1913 Webster] Can you imagine I so mean could prove, To save my life by changing of my love ? --Dryden. [1913 Webster] 3. Of little value or account; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable. [1913 Webster] The Roman legions and great Caesar found Our fathers no mean foes. --J. Philips. [1913 Webster] 4. Of poor quality; as, mean fare. [1913 Webster] 5. Penurious; stingy; close-fisted; illiberal; as, mean hospitality. [1913 Webster] Note: Mean is sometimes used in the formation of compounds, the sense of which is obvious without explanation; as, meanborn, mean-looking, etc. [1913 Webster] Syn: Base; ignoble; abject; beggarly; wretched; degraded; degenerate; vulgar; vile; servile; menial; spiritless; groveling; slavish; dishonorable; disgraceful; shameful; despicable; contemptible; paltry; sordid. See Base. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Mean \Mean\ (m[=e]n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Meant (m[e^]nt); p. pr. & vb. n. Meaning.] [OE. menen, AS. m[=ae]nan to recite, tell, intend, wish; akin to OS. m[=e]nian to have in mind, mean, D. meenen, G. meinen, OHG. meinan, Icel. meina, Sw. mena, Dan. mene, and to E. mind. [root]104. See Mind, and cf. Moan.] 1. To have in the mind, as a purpose, intention, etc.; to intend; to purpose; to design; as, what do you mean to do? [1913 Webster] What mean ye by this service ? --Ex. xii. 26. [1913 Webster] Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good. --Gen. 1. 20. [1913 Webster] I am not a Spaniard To say that it is yours and not to mean it. --Longfellow. [1913 Webster] 2. To signify; to indicate; to import; to denote. [1913 Webster] What mean these seven ewe lambs ? --Gen. xxi. 29. [1913 Webster] Go ye, and learn what that meaneth. --Matt. ix. 13. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Mean \Mean\, n. 1. That which is mean, or intermediate, between two extremes of place, time, or number; the middle point or place; middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of extremes or excess; moderation; measure. [1913 Webster] But to speak in a mean, the virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude. --Bacon. [1913 Webster] There is a mean in all things. --Dryden. [1913 Webster] The extremes we have mentioned, between which the wellinstracted Christian holds the mean, are correlatives. --I. Taylor. [1913 Webster] 2. (Math.) A quantity having an intermediate value between several others, from which it is derived, and of which it expresses the resultant value; usually, unless otherwise specified, it is the simple average, formed by adding the quantities together and dividing by their number, which is called an arithmetical mean. A geometrical mean is the nth root of the product of the n quantities being averaged. [1913 Webster] 3. That through which, or by the help of which, an end is attained; something tending to an object desired; intermediate agency or measure; necessary condition or coagent; instrument. [1913 Webster] Their virtuous conversation was a mean to work the conversion of the heathen to Christ. --Hooker. [1913 Webster] You may be able, by this mean, to review your own scientific acquirements. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster] Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean. --Sir W. Hamilton. [1913 Webster] Note: In this sense the word is usually employed in the plural form means, and often with a singular attribute or predicate, as if a singular noun. [1913 Webster] By this means he had them more at vantage. --Bacon. [1913 Webster] What other means is left unto us. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 4. pl. Hence: Resources; property, revenue, or the like, considered as the condition of easy livelihood, or an instrumentality at command for effecting any purpose; disposable force or substance. [1913 Webster] Your means are very slender, and your waste is great. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 5. (Mus.) A part, whether alto or tenor, intermediate between the soprano and base; a middle part. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] The mean is drowned with your unruly base. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 6. Meantime; meanwhile. [Obs.] --Spenser. [1913 Webster] 7. A mediator; a go-between. [Obs.] --Piers Plowman. [1913 Webster] He wooeth her by means and by brokage. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] By all means, certainly; without fail; as, go, by all means. By any means, in any way; possibly; at all. [1913 Webster] If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. --Phil. iii. ll. [1913 Webster] By no means, or By no manner of means, not at all; certainly not; not in any degree. [1913 Webster] The wine on this side of the lake is by no means so good as that on the other. --Addison. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Mean \Mean\, a. [OE. mene, OF. meiien, F. moyen, fr. L. medianus that is in the middle, fr. medius; akin to E. mid. See Mid.] 1. Occupying a middle position; middle; being about midway between extremes. [1913 Webster] Being of middle age and a mean stature. --Sir. P. Sidney. [1913 Webster] 2. Intermediate in excellence of any kind. [1913 Webster] According to the fittest style of lofty, mean, or lowly. --Milton. [1913 Webster] 3. (Math.) Average; having an intermediate value between two extremes, or between the several successive values of a variable quantity during one cycle of variation; as, mean distance; mean motion; mean solar day. [1913 Webster] Mean distance (of a planet from the sun) (Astron.), the average of the distances throughout one revolution of the planet, equivalent to the semi-major axis of the orbit. Mean error (Math. Phys.), the average error of a number of observations found by taking the mean value of the positive and negative errors without regard to sign. Mean-square error, or Error of the mean square (Math. Phys.), the error the square of which is the mean of the squares of all the errors; -- called also, mean square deviation, mean error. Mean line. (Crystallog.) Same as Bisectrix. Mean noon, noon as determined by mean time. Mean proportional (between two numbers) (Math.), the square root of their product. Mean sun, a fictitious sun supposed to move uniformly in the equator so as to be on the meridian each day at mean noon. Mean time, time as measured by an equable motion, as of a perfect clock, or as reckoned on the supposition that all the days of the year are of a mean or uniform length, in contradistinction from apparent time, or that actually indicated by the sun, and from sidereal time, or that measured by the stars. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

mean adj 1: approximating the statistical norm or average or expected value; "the average income in New England is below that of the nation"; "of average height for his age"; "the mean annual rainfall" [syn: average, mean(a)] 2: characterized by malice; "a hateful thing to do"; "in a mean mood" [syn: hateful, mean] 3: having or showing an ignoble lack of honor or morality; "that liberal obedience without which your army would be a base rabble"- Edmund Burke; "taking a mean advantage"; "chok'd with ambition of the meaner sort"- Shakespeare; "something essentially vulgar and meanspirited in politics" [syn: base, mean, meanspirited] 4: excellent; "famous for a mean backhand" 5: marked by poverty befitting a beggar; "a beggarly existence in the slums"; "a mean hut" [syn: beggarly, mean] 6: (used of persons or behavior) characterized by or indicative of lack of generosity; "a mean person"; "he left a miserly tip" [syn: mean, mingy, miserly, tight] 7: (used of sums of money) so small in amount as to deserve contempt [syn: beggarly, mean] 8: of no value or worth; "I was caught in the bastardly traffic" [syn: bastardly, mean] n 1: an average of n numbers computed by adding some function of the numbers and dividing by some function of n [syn: mean, mean value] v 1: mean or intend to express or convey; "You never understand what I mean!"; "what do his words intend?" [syn: mean, intend] 2: have as a logical consequence; "The water shortage means that we have to stop taking long showers" [syn: entail, imply, mean] 3: denote or connote; "`maison' means `house' in French"; "An example sentence would show what this word means" [syn: mean, intend, signify, stand for] 4: have in mind as a purpose; "I mean no harm"; "I only meant to help you"; "She didn't think to harm me"; "We thought to return early that night" [syn: intend, mean, think] 5: have a specified degree of importance; "My ex-husband means nothing to me"; "Happiness means everything" 6: intend to refer to; "I'm thinking of good food when I talk about France"; "Yes, I meant you when I complained about people who gossip!" [syn: think of, have in mind, mean] 7: destine or designate for a certain purpose; "These flowers were meant for you"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

693 Moby Thesaurus words for "mean": Herculean, Lenten, Mickey Mouse, OK, Spartan, abject, abominable, absolutely, abstemious, abstruse, abysmal, ace-high, add up to, affect, agency, agent, ailing, aim, aim at, allegorize, allude to, amidships, apparatus, approach, arduous, argue, arrant, ascetic, aspire after, aspire to, assets, assume, assuredly, at all events, at any cost, atrocious, attest, augur, austere, authoritarian, avenue, average, backing, bad, bad-tempered, baleful, banal, bang-up, base, base-minded, baseborn, be after, be construed as, be indicative of, be significant of, be symptomatic of, bearish, beggarly, below the salt, beneath contempt, bespeak, betoken, bigot, bigoted, bitchy, bonzer, borne, boss, brandish, breathe, bring forth, bring forward, bring into view, bring out, bring to mind, bring to notice, brutal, bully, bundle, but good, by all means, by dint of, by means of, by no means, by way of, cankered, cantankerous, capital, carry, center, central, certainly, channel, characterize, cheap, cheesy, churlish, close, closed, coarse, cockney, common, commonplace, communicate, complex, compromise, connote, constricted, contemplate, contemptible, convey, cool, core, corking, count, course, crabbed, crackerjack, cramped, cranky, creedbound, critical, cross, cross-grained, cruel, crummy, crusty, cussed, dandy, dangle, deaf, deaf to reason, debased, declasse, deficient, definitely, degenerate, degraded, delicate, delicious, demanding, demonstrate, denominate, denote, depraved, design, designate, desire, despicable, destine, determine, develop, diameter, diaphragm, differentiate, difficile, difficult, dirty, disagreeable, disclose, disgraceful, disgusting, dismal, disobliging, display, divine, divulge, donsie, dramatize, dreary, drive at, ducky, dwarfed, dwarfish, effective, embody, enact, entail, equator, equatorial, equidistant, equipment, estate, evidence, evince, exacting, excellent, exceptional, excitable, execrable, exhibit, exiguous, expect, expose to view, express, fab, fair, fairish, fanatical, fashion, feisty, fence, finances, fine and dandy, flagrant, flaunt, flourish, foreshadow, foretell, foretoken, formidable, fortune, foul, fourth-class, fractious, frugal, fulsome, funds, gaudy, gear, get across, get over, gimcracky, give evidence, give sign, give token, go for, golden mean, grave, great, groovy, gross, grudging, hack, hairy, half measures, half-and-half measures, halfway, halfway measures, happy medium, harbor a design, hard, hard-earned, hard-fought, harmful, hateful, have every intention, have in mind, have in view, heart, heavy, heinous, herald, hidebound, highlight, hint, hint at, holdings, homely, hope, hostile, hot, huffish, huffy, humble, humble-looking, humble-visaged, humblest, hunky-dory, identify, ignoble, ill-tempered, illiberal, illuminate, imperfect, implicate, imply, import, impoverished, in any case, in any event, in no way, inadequate, incarnate, incompetent, indicate, indifferent, indisposed, ineffectual, infer, inferior, inglorious, iniquitous, innocuous, insinuate, instrument, instrumentality, instrumentation, insufficient, insular, intangibles, intend, intercurrent, interior, interjacent, intermediary, intermediate, intervenient, intervening, intimate, intricate, invidious, involve, irascible, irregular, irritable, jam-up, jawbreaking, jejune, just dandy, keen, kernel, knotted, knotty, laborious, lean, least, limited, little, little-minded, low, low-class, low-down, low-grade, low-minded, low-quality, low-test, lowborn, lowbred, lowest, lowliest, lowly, lumpen, machinery, make clear, make plain, maladroit, malefic, maleficent, malicious, malign, malignant, mangy, manifest, manner, mark, marvy, materialize, meager, mean, mean to say, mean-minded, mean-spirited, means, measly, medial, median, mediocre, mediterranean, medium, menial, mercenary, meretricious, mesial, mesne, method, mezzo, mid, middle, middle course, middle ground, middle way, middle-of-the-road, middlemost, middling, midland, midmost, midriff, midships, midst, midway, mind, mingy, ministry, miserable, miserly, mode, moderate, moderateness, moderation, modest, money, moneybags, monstrous, name, narrow, narrow-hearted, narrow-minded, narrow-souled, narrow-spirited, nasty, near, nearsighted, neat, nefarious, nest egg, neutral ground, nifty, niggard, niggardly, no matter what, no picnic, no way, nobby, nonclerical, norm, normal, not at all, not comparable, not easy, not in it, note, noxious, nuclear, nucleus, obnoxious, odious, of course, okay, on no account, operose, ordinary, organ, ornery, out of it, out of sight, paltry, par, parade, paraphernalia, parochial, parsimonious, pathetic, peachy, peachy-keen, penny-pinching, penurious, perform, perverse, pesky, petty, pile, pinchpenny, pitiable, pitiful, plain, plan, plebeian, pocket, point indirectly to, point to, poky, poor, portend, position, positively, possessions, prefigure, preindicate, presage, present, presign, presignal, presignify, presume, presuppose, pretypify, procedure, process, produce, project, proletarian, promise, property, propose, provincial, punk, puny, purblind, purport, purpose, purse, rank, refer to, represent, reptilian, reserves, resolve, resources, reveal, rigorous, ripping, roll out, rough, routine, rubbishy, rude, rugged, rum, run-down, sad, savings, scabby, scant, scanty, scrawny, scrimp, scrimpy, scrubby, scruffy, scrumptious, scummy, scurvy, scuzzy, second-best, second-class, second-rate, seedy, servile, set, set forth, set with thorns, severe, shabby, shabby-genteel, shoddy, shortsighted, show, show forth, signal, signify, simple, skilled, skimp, skimpy, slap-up, slavish, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, small, small-minded, smashing, snappish, so-so, solid, something else, sordid, sorry, sour, spare, sparing, specify, spell, spiffing, spiffy, spiny, spiteful, spleeny, splenetic, spotlight, squalid, stand for, standard, starvation, steep, stingy, stinted, stinting, straitened, straitlaced, strenuous, stuffy, stunning, stunted, submissive, subservient, subsistence, substance, suggest, support, suppose, surely, swell, symbolize, symptomatize, symptomize, system, tacky, take for granted, tatty, teachable, technique, testify, testy, thick, thick of things, thin, think, third-class, third-estate, third-rate, thorny, through, ticklish, tight, tight-fisted, tightfisted, tinny, toilsome, token, tough, trashy, tricky, trot out, troublous, trumpery, two-for-a-cent, two-for-a-penny, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny, typify, ugly, unaccommodating, uncatholic, uncharitable, unchivalrous, undignified, undistinguished, unfold, ungenerous, ungenteel, unimportant, unkind, unliberal, unmentionable, unnourishing, unnutritious, unpleasant, unpretentious, unskillful, unwashed, uphill, using, usual, valueless, vehicle, vexatious, via, via media, vile, vulgar, waist, waistline, want, waspish, watered, watery, wave, way, ways, wealth, weigh, wherewithal, wicked, wish, without fail, wizard, wonderful, worthless, wretched, zone
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

MEAN. This word is sometimes used for mesne. (q.v.)