mare

¹

[ mair ]

noun

1. a fully mature female horse or other equine animal.

mare

²

[ mair ]

noun

, Obsolete.

1. nightmare ( def 3 ).

mare

³

[ mahr-ey, mair-ee ]

noun

, Astronomy.

, plural ma·ri·a [mahr, -ee-, uh, mair, -].

1. any of the several large, dark plains on the moon and Mars: Galileo believed that the lunar features were seas when he first saw them through a telescope.

mare

¹

/ mɛə /

noun

1. the adult female of a horse or zebra

mare

²

/ ˈmɑːreɪ; -rɪ /

noun

1. capital when part of a name any of a large number of huge dry plains on the surface of the moon, visible as dark markings and once thought to be seas: Mare Imbrium ( Sea of Showers )
2. a similar area on the surface of Mars, such as Mare Sirenum

mare

/ mä′rā /

, Plural maria mä′rē-ə

1. Any of the large, low-lying dark areas on the Moon or on Mars or other inner planets. The lunar maria are believed to consist of volcanic basalts, and many are believed to be basins formed initially by large impacts with meteoroids and later filled with lava flows.
2. Compare terra

Word History and Origins

Origin of mare¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English, mere, mare, maire “horse for riding; beast of burden,” Old English mere, myre “mare”; cognate with Old Frisian merie, Dutch merrie, German Mähre, Old Norse merr; the feminine equivalents to Old English mearh, Old High German marah, march, Old Norse marr, Irish marc, “horse, steed”; marshal

Origin of mare²

First recorded before 900; Middle English mare “night goblin; incubus,” Old English mære, mare, mere “nightmare; monster that oppresses people in their sleep”; cognate with German Mahre, Old Norse mara; nightmare

Origin of mare³

First recorded in 1760–70; from Latin: literally, “sea”

Word History and Origins

Origin of mare¹

C12: from Old English, of Germanic origin; related to Old High German mariha, Old Norse merr mare

Origin of mare²

from Latin: sea

Example Sentences

The 5-year-old mare has been campaigned heavily running in her 41st lifetime race.

From Los Angeles Times

She was scheduled to have a showdown with Idiomatic, but last year’s champion mare suffered an injury and was retired.

From Los Angeles Times

In its expansive definition of national sovereignty, this treaty allowed European states to acquire “barbarous nations” by conquest and make entire oceans into a mare clausum, or a closed sea, through exploration.

From Salon

In a distinctly ironic twist, a rising China has defied the long-standing doctrine of open seas, now sanctioned under a U.N. convention, instead effectively reviving the mare clausum version of imperial power by claiming adjacent oceans as its sovereign territory.

From Salon

Just as Beijing effectively revived the 1455 doctrine of mare clausum, so its diplomacy will be infused with the self-aggrandizing spirit of the 1885 Berlin conference that once partitioned Africa.

From Salon

Related Words

• colt
• filly
• stallion