mermaid

English

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.
2. (as a modifier) Coloured a brilliant turquoise.

   mermaid smoothie

Synonyms

• mergirl, merlady, mermaiden, merwoman

Hypernyms

• merperson

Hyponyms

• mermother
• merqueen

Holonyms

• merfolk

Coordinate terms

• melusine
• nixie
• siren

Derived terms

• mermaid's purse
• mermaid skirt

Related terms

Related terms

• merman
• merewif

• merwolf
• mereswine

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)

• Cornish: morvoren f
• 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
• Ido: sireno (io)
• Irish: maighdean mhara f, murúch f
• Italian: sirena (it) f
• Japanese: 人魚 (ja) (にんぎょ, ningyo)
• Korean: 인어 (ko) (ineo) (人魚 (ko))

• Kumyk: суванасы (suvanası)
• Lao: ນາງເງືອກ (nāng ngư̄ak)
• Latin: siren f, femina marina, puella marina, semipuella marina, oceanide f, nerede f
• 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, havsfru c
• Tagalog: sirena
• Tatar: су анасы (su anası)
• Telugu: మత్స్యకన్య (matsyakanya)
• Thai: นางเงือก (th) (naang-ngʉ̂ʉak)
• Turkish: deniz kızı, denizkızı (tr), susulu, susuna
• Vietnamese: người cá, mỹ nhân ngư (美人魚)
• Welsh: môr-forwyn f