mermaid

English

Wikipedia

Portrait of a mermaid.

Etymology

From Middle English mermayde ‎(“maid of the sea”), from mere ‎(“sea, lake”) + maid, equivalent to mer- +‎ maid. Compare Old English meremenn, meremennen, meremenin ‎(“mermaid, siren”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈməː.meɪd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɝ.meɪd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

mermaid ‎(plural mermaids)

1. A mythological creature with a woman's head and upper body, and a tail of a fish.

Synonyms

• mergirl, merlady, mermaiden, merwoman

Hyponyms

• mermother
• merqueen

Hypernyms

• merperson

Holonyms

• merfolk

Related terms

Related terms

merman merewif

merwolf mereswine

Coordinate terms

• melusine
• nixie
• siren

Derived terms

• mermaid's purse
• mermaid skirt

Translations

mythological woman with a fish's tail

• Arabic: حُورِيَّة اَلْبَحْر f ‎(ḥūriyyat al-baḥr), حُورِيَّة اَلْمَاء f ‎(ḥūriyyat al-māʾ)
• Armenian: ջրահարս (hy) ‎(ǰrahars)
• Asturian: serena f, sirena f
• Catalan: sirena (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 人魚, 人鱼 ‎(jan⁴ jyu⁴), 美人魚, 美人鱼 ‎(mei⁵ jan⁴ jyu⁴)

  Mandarin: 人魚 (zh), 人鱼 (zh) ‎(rényú), 美人魚 (zh), 美人鱼 (zh) ‎(měirényú)

• Czech: mořská panna f
• Danish: havfrue c
• Dutch: zeemeermin (nl) f, meermin (nl) f
• Esperanto: sireno
• Estonian: merineitsi
• Finnish: merenneito (fi)
• French: sirène (fr) f
• Galician: serea (gl) f
• Georgian: ქალთევზა ‎(kaltevza), ალი (ka) ‎(ali), სირინოზი ‎(sirinozi)
• German: Nixe (de) f, Wassernixe f, Seejungfrau f, Meerjungfrau (de) f
• Greek: γοργόνα (el) f ‎(gorgóna), σειρήνα (el) f ‎(seirína)
• Hawaiian: wahine hiʻu iʻa
• Hebrew: בַּת יָם (he) f ‎(bat yam)
• Hindi: मत्स्यांगना ‎(matsyāṅganā)
• Hungarian: hableány (hu), sellő (hu)
• Icelandic: hafmey (is) f
• Irish: maighdean mhara f
• Italian: sirena (it) f
• Japanese: 人魚 ‎(にんぎょ, ningyo)
• Korean: 인어 (ko) ‎(ineo) (人魚 (ko))

• Kumyk: суванасы ‎(suvanası)
• Latin: siren f, femina marina, puella marina, semipuella marina
• Latvian: nāra (lv) f
• Macedonian: сире́на f ‎(siréna), морска самовила f ‎(morska samovila), морска вила f ‎(morska vila)
• Malay: ikan duyung
• Maltese: sirena f
• Navajo: chʼikę́ę́h łóóʼ
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: havfrue m, f

  Nynorsk: havfru f, havfrue f

• Polish: syrena (pl) f
• Portuguese: sereia (pt) f
• Romanian: sirenă (ro) f
• Russian: руса́лка (ru) f ‎(rusálka), сире́на (ru) f ‎(siréna), ная́да (ru) f ‎(najáda)
• Scottish Gaelic: maighdeann-mhara f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: сирена

  Roman: sirena (sh)

• Spanish: sirena (es) f
• Swedish: sjöjungfru (sv) c
• Tatar: су анасы ‎(su anası)
• Telugu: మత్స్యకన్య ‎(matsyakanya)
• Thai: นางเงือก ‎(nang ngueak)
• Turkish: deniz kızı, denizkızı (tr), susulu, susuna
• Vietnamese: mỹ nhân ngư (美人魚)
• Welsh: môr-forwyn f