Wiktionary:Formatting Policy Proposal/layout 2
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[See this in use at forte, mean, and sake]
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
mean (1)[edit]
transitive verb
- From Old English mænan, "to mean", "to allude to". Confer Durch meenen, German meinen. Cognate with "mind" and German Minne, "love".
Transitive verb[edit]
to mean (meant, meant)
- To convey, signify, or indicate.
- What does this hieroglyph mean?
- The sky is red this morning—does that mean we're in for a storm?
- To want or intend to convey.
- I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean.
- Say what you mean and mean what you say.
- To intend; to plan on doing.
- To have conviction in what one says.
- Does she really mean what she said to him last night?
- Say what you mean and mean what you say.
- To have intentions of a some kind.
- Don't be angry; she meant well.
- Someone's coming up. He means business.
- To result in; to bring about.
- One faltering step means certain death.
Translations[edit]
- Dutch: menen
- Esperanto: voli diri (1); signifi (2), intenci (3)
- Finnish: tarkoittaa (1, 2), aikoa (3)
- French: vouloir dire (1); signifier (2)
- German: meinen (1,4), bedeuten (2), beabsichtigen (3)
- Indonesian: berarti, artinya, bermaksud, maksudnya
- Ido: signifikar
- Interlingua: voler dicer (1); significar (2); intender, haber le intention de (3); mantener un opinion (4)
- Italian: voler dire (1); significare (2)
- Japanese: 意味する (いみする, imi-suru), 意図する (いとする, ito-suru)
- Portuguese: querer dizer (1); significar (2); tencionar, ter a intenção de (3); manter uma opinião, falar sério (4)
mean (2)[edit]
- From Old English gemæne. Confer Dutch gemeen, German gemein, Gothic gamains. Cognate with Latin communis.
Adjective[edit]
mean (meaner, meanest)
- Causing or intending to cause intentional harm; bearing ill will towards another; cruel; malicious.
- Watch out for her, she's mean. I said good morning to her, and she punched me in the nose.
- Selfish; acting without consideration of others; unkind.
- It was mean to steal the girl's piggy bank, but he just had to get uptown and he had no cash of his own.
- Powerful; fierce; harsh; damaging.
- It must have been a mean typhoon that levelled this town.
- Accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with.
- Low in quality; inferior.
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
- Chinese: 卑鄙
- Dutch: gemeen (1,2), boosaardig (1), gemiddelde (2)
- Esperanto: kruela (1), malafabla (1), malbonkvalita (2)
- Finnish: ilkeä (1)
- French: inférieur (2)
- German: gemein (1); mittelmäßig (2), böse (1,3)
- Greek: μέσος m, μέση f, μέσο n
- Indonesian: buruk hati, kikir, pemarah, rata-rata
- Interlingua: mal, perverse, contemptibile (1); inferior (2); insuperabile, superior (3)
- Italian: inferiore (2)
- Japanese: 意地悪 (いじわる, ijiwaru) (1), 悪い (わるい, warui), 平均 (へいきん, heikin), 平均的 (へいきんてき, heikinteki)
- Portuguese: mal m & f, perverso m, perversa f (1); inferior m & f (2); médio m, média f (3); insuperável m & f, superior m & f
- Russian: средний m, средняя f, среднее n
- Spanish: malo m, mala f
mean (3)[edit]
Adjective[edit]
mean
- Having an intermediate value; based on an average; as, mean distance, mean time, mean solar time, mean sun.
Translations[edit]
Noun[edit]
mean (plural: means)
- (statistics) An intermediate value based on some measure of central tendency, often an average or the arithmetic mean. (See the related Wikipedia article)
- See the noun means