mean

¹ American  

[meen] / min /

verb (used with object)

• means,
  present (3rd person singular)
• meant,
  past participle,  past
• meaning
  present participle

1. to have in mind as one's purpose or intention.

   I meant to compliment you on your work.

   Synonyms:

   contemplate, aim, plan, intend

2. to intend for a particular purpose, destination, etc..

   They were meant for each other.

   Synonyms:

   foreordain, destine

3. to intend to express or indicate.

   What do you mean by “liberal”?

4. to have as its sense or signification; signify.

   The word “freedom” means many things to many people.

   Synonyms:

   connote, imply, import, indicate, denote

5. to bring, cause, or produce as a result.

   This bonus means that we can take a trip to Florida.

6. to have (certain intentions) toward a person.

   He didn't mean you any harm.

7. to have the value of; assume the importance of.

   Money means everything to them. She means the world to him.

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verb (used without object)

• means,
  present (3rd person singular)
• meant,
  past participle,  past
• meaning
  present participle

1. to be minded or disposed; have intentions.

   Beware, she means ill, despite her solicitous manner.

idioms

1. mean well, to have good intentions; try to be kind or helpful.

   Her constant queries about your health must be tiresome, but I'm sure she means well.

mean ² American  

[meen] / min /

adjective

• meaner,
  comparative
• meanest
  superlative

1. offensive, selfish, or unaccommodating; nasty; malicious.

   a mean remark;

   He gets mean when he doesn't get his way.

2. small-minded or ignoble.

   mean motives.

   Synonyms:

   despicable, contemptible

3. penurious, stingy, or miserly.

   a person who is mean about money.

   Synonyms:

   selfish, ungenerous, illiberal, parsimonious, tight, close

4. inferior in grade, quality, or character.

   no mean reward.

5. low in status, rank, or dignity.

   mean servitors.

   Synonyms:

   plebeian, undignified, humble, common

6. of little importance or consequence.

   mean little details.

   Synonyms:

   poor, little, paltry, petty, insignificant, inconsequential

7. unimposing or shabby.

   a mean abode.

   Synonyms:

   poor, squalid

8. small, humiliated, or ashamed.

   You should feel mean for being so stingy.

9. Informal. in poor physical condition.

10. troublesome or vicious; bad-tempered.

    a mean old horse.

11. Slang. skillful or impressive.

    He blows a mean trumpet.

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mean ³ American  

[meen] / min /

noun

• means
  plural

1. (used with a singular or plural verb) Usually means an agency, instrument, or method used to attain an end.

   The telephone is a means of communication. There are several means of solving the problem.

2. means,

   1. available resources, especially money.

      They lived beyond their means.

   2. considerable financial resources; riches.

      a man of means.

3. something that is midway between two extremes; something intermediate.

   to seek a mean between cynicism and blind faith.

4. Mathematics.

   1. a quantity having a value intermediate between the values of other quantities; an average, especially the arithmetic mean.

   2. either the second or third term in a proportion of four terms.

5. Statistics. expected value. See mathematical expectation.

6. Logic. the middle term in a syllogism.

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adjective

• meaner,
  comparative
• meanest
  superlative

1. occupying a middle position or an intermediate place, as in kind, quality, degree, or time.

   a mean speed; a mean course; the mean annual rainfall.

idioms

1. by any means, in any way; at all.

   We were not surprised at the news by any means.

2. by means of, with the help of; by the agency of; through.

   We crossed the stream by means of a log.

3. by no means, in no way; not at all.

   The prize is by no means certain.

4. by all means,

   1. (in emphasis) certainly.

      Go, by all means.

   2. at any cost; without fail.

mean ¹ British  

/ miːn /

adjective

1. miserly, ungenerous, or petty

2. humble, obscure, or lowly

   he rose from mean origins to high office

3. despicable, ignoble, or callous

   a mean action

4. poor or shabby

   mean clothing

   a mean abode

5. informal bad-tempered; vicious

6. informal ashamed

   he felt mean about not letting the children go to the zoo

7. informal unwell; in low spirits

8. slang excellent; skilful

   he plays a mean trombone

9. 1. of high quality

      no mean performer

   2. difficult

      no mean feat

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mean ² British  

/ miːn /

verb

1. (may take a clause as object or an infinitive) to intend to convey or express

2. (may take a clause as object or an infinitive) intend

   she didn't mean to hurt it

3. (may take a clause as object) to say or do in all seriousness

   the boss means what he says about strikes

4. to destine or design (for a certain person or purpose)

   she was meant for greater things

5. (may take a clause as object) to denote or connote; signify; represent

   examples help show exactly what a word means

6. (may take a clause as object) to produce; cause

   the weather will mean long traffic delays

7. (may take a clause as object) to foretell; portend

   those dark clouds mean rain

8. to have the importance of

   money means nothing to him

9. (intr) to have the intention of behaving or acting (esp in the phrases mean well or mean ill )

10. to be in earnest

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mean ³ British  

/ miːn /

noun

1. the middle point, state, or course between limits or extremes

2. moderation

3. maths

   1. the second and third terms of a proportion, as b and c in a/b = c/d

   2. another name for average See also geometric mean

4. statistics a statistic obtained by multiplying each possible value of a variable by its probability and then taking the sum or integral over the range of the variable

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adjective

1. intermediate or medium in size, quantity, etc

2. occurring halfway between extremes or limits; average

mean Scientific  

/ mēn /

1. A number or quantity having a value that is intermediate between other numbers or quantities, especially an arithmetic mean or average.

2. See more at arithmetic mean

3. Either the second or third term of a proportion of four terms. In the proportion 2/3 = 4/6, the means are 3 and 4.

4. Compare extreme

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mean ¹ Cultural  

1. An average in statistics. (See under “Physical Sciences and Mathematics.”)

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mean ² Cultural  

1. In statistics, an average of a group of numbers or data points. With a group of numbers, the mean is obtained by adding them and dividing by the number of numbers in the group. Thus the mean of five, seven, and twelve is eight (twenty-four divided by three). (Compare median and mode.)

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mean More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing mean

• means

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Usage

What’s the difference between mean, median, mode, and average? In the context of mathematics and statistics, the word mean refers to what’s informally called the average—the sum of a set of values divided by the number of values. In contrast, the median is the middle number in a set of values when those values are arranged from smallest to largest, while the mode of a set of values is the most frequently repeated value in the set. The word average is of course also very commonly used in more general ways. In math, though, it’s helpful to use more specific terms when determining the most representative or common value in a set of numbers. To illustrate the difference, let’s look at an example set of seven values: 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9. To get the mean of this set, you’d add up all the values (2+3+3+4+6+8+9=35) and then divide that total by the number of values (7), resulting in a mean of 5. This is what most people are referring to when they refer to the average of some set of numbers. To find the median, you have to find the one that’s sequentially in the middle. In a set of seven numbers arranged in increasing value, the median is the fourth number (since there are three before and three after). In this set (2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9), the median is 4. When a set has an even number of values, the median is the mean of the two middle values. The mode is simply the value that shows up the most. In the example set, the mode is 3, since it occurs twice and all the other values occur only once. Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between mean, median, mode, and average.

Synonym Usage

See intend.

Mean, low, base, sordid, and vile all refer to ignoble characteristics worthy of dislike, contempt, or disgust. Mean suggests pettiness and small-mindedness: to take a mean advantage. Low suggests coarseness and vulgarity: low company. Base suggests selfish cowardice or moral depravity: base motives. Sordid suggests a wretched uncleanness, or sometimes an avariciousness without dignity or moral scruples: a sordid slum; sordid gain. Vile suggests disgusting foulness or repulsiveness: vile insinuation; a vile creature. See stingy ¹.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• meanness
  noun
• meanly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• means
  plural

Adjectives

• meaner
  comparative
• meanest
  superlative

Participles

• meaning
  present
• meant
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• mean
  simple
• means
  simple
• have meant
  perfect
• has meant
  perfect
• am meaning
  progressive
• are meaning
  progressive
• is meaning
  progressive
• have been meaning
  perfect progressive
• has been meaning
  perfect progressive

Past

• meant
  simple
• had meant
  perfect
• was meaning
  progressive
• were meaning
  progressive
• had been meaning
  perfect progressive

Future

• will mean
  simple
• will have meant
  perfect
• will be meaning
  progressive
• will have been meaning
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of mean¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English menen, Old English mǣnan; cognate with German meinen, Dutch meenen

Origin of mean²

First recorded before 900; Middle English mene, variant of imene, imeane “held or shared in common,” Old English gemǣne “common, general, mutual”; cognate with Dutch gemeen, German gemein “common,” Gothic gamains “in common”; see origin at y-, common

Origin of mean³

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English mene, meine, from Middle French meen, mean, variant of meien, from Latin mediānus “middle, in the middle”; see median

Explanation

If you got a fortune cookie with the message "Your future will contain many bananas," you might ask, "What on earth does that mean?" In other words, you wonder what the intention or meaning of the fortune might be. Mean is one of those ordinary, everyday words with lots of different meanings. The adjective mean can describe someone who's stingy or ungenerous, but it also means "unkind or unfair," which is what a little kid intends to convey when she yells at her mother, "You're mean!" In the sentence, "She lived in a mean little house," mean has yet another meaning, this time being "shabby or poor."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mean means meaner meanest meant meaning

Crucially, with the broader market spinning its wheels of late, surging earnings mean price-to-earnings multiples have dropped.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

The vandal surely didn’t mean to, but Wallace contends that he wound up uniting the neighborhood as never before.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

Being notified "does not mean that any private information was accessed" or that a system was compromised, OpenAI said.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

The firm also pointed out how fast startup companies can scale using AI, which will also mean they need to rely on advertising less.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

All of these behaviors can mean something entirely different in another culture, but all cultures have listening behavior.

From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman

Smit means smiling and his last name means mosquito, Arora said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

“Four hundred SKUs spread across multiple brands means that Conagra has varieties that are competing against each other,” he said.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

“I’m not necessarily afraid to go across a party line if that means doing what I think is best for the country,” said Dorsey, a registered Republican.

From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026

But so far there has been little focus on what it means for one crucial group.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

“I get it. But what I don’t get is how getting a puppy means the rest of your life stops.”

From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam

The Financial Times's Danny Leigh dished out three stars, saying it paints a "portrait of tech rendering the young both sadder and meaner".

From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026

The meaner the Pistons get, the more their record improves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 4, 2026

In turn, increased efficiency allows them to be meaner toward prospective employees.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 7, 2026

The soccer world is about to become a colder, darker and meaner place.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 30, 2025

When they were together, Bruno did whatever his brother told him, but by himself he was meaner than Frederick.

From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff

"Candidates should not try to be the meanest sheriff."

From Barron's ● Mar. 26, 2026

Yet none found the back of the net, leaving the game to be decided on penalties, the cruelest, meanest, most unfair — and most exciting — way to determine a winner.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2025

Readers eventually learn how Odd, whom Buddy describes as “the meanest human creature in my experience,” ends up at Buddy’s home for the holiday.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 21, 2025

I was behind the wheel of the biggest, meanest, greenest, most American street-legal machine in existence.

From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2025

“You’re acting like the meanest girl I’ve ever seen,” he said.

From "Because of Mr. Terupt" by Rob Buyea

But the overall pattern is clear: Higher debt levels have meant a worse fallout for bond prices.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

The extra costs of those trips meant Rosenthal and his wife had to cancel a planned road trip to Washington state for vacation.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026

A GoFundMe fundraising page described Xavier as “a beautiful, caring, and loving boy who meant so much to the people around him.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

But she said the ruling meant she could "get back to what matters most to me: being there for the people and communities I've always wanted to serve".

From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026

That meant he dearly loved rolling in manure and decay, so Tarbox territory was the happy hunting ground for him.

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck

Health, house, offspring, politics, the meaning of life.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

You’re in your 20s, meaning your income probably hasn’t peaked yet and you can lock in a lower tax rate, too.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

This focused exhibition brings together a selection of Jack Whitten’s work from the 1980s, a particularly energized period in his 60-year career when he experimented with form, material and meaning.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

The average star of WWE or AEW signs on as an independent contractor, meaning they are responsible for their own health insurance and are subject to being fired for nearly any cause.

From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026

But now I can’t tell if it means anything at all or if I’m just so desperate for meaning that I’m inventing it where there is none.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

Related Words

• callous
• dangerous
• evil
• hard
• malicious
• nasty
• rough
• ugly
• vicious
• vile