mero

See also: Mero, méro-, -mero, mero-, merő, and mérő

English

Etymology 1

From Spanish mero.

Noun

mero (plural meros)

1. Any of several large groupers of warm seas.

Related terms

• mero de lo alto
• mero cabrolla

Etymology 2

Noun

mero (plural meros)

1. (medicine, colloquial) Meropenem.

See also

• mero motu (etymologically unrelated)

Anagrams

• -more, More, Rome, Moré, omer, Omer, erom, Orme, moer, more, Orem

Catalan

Etymology

Perhaps from Latin *merus, back-formation from merulus, variant of merula (“wrasse”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈme.ɾu]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [ˈme.ɾo]

Noun

mero m (plural meros)

1. grouper

   Synonym: anfós

Derived terms

• mero de Nassau

Further reading

• “mero”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026

Esperanto

Etymology

Derived from Ancient Greek μέρος (méros, “part”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmero/
• Rhymes: -ero
• Syllabification: me‧ro

Noun

mero (accusative singular meron, plural meroj, accusative plural merojn)

1. (chemistry) -mer

Derived terms

• dimero
• elastomero
• elastopolimero
• heteropolimero
• homopolimero
• malpolimerigi
• monomero
• oligomero
• polimerazo
• polimereco
• polimerigi
• polimero
• tetramero
• trimero

Galician

Mero

Etymology

Unknown. Perhaps of local Celtic origin, related to *mrktilos (“speckled”) which originates a number of names of fish in Brittonic languages; in that case, from Proto-Indo-European *mergʷ- (“dark, coloured”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛɾo̝/

Noun

mero m (plural meros)

1. grouper (Epinephelus marginatus)

   Synonym: cherna

   • 1417, Ángel Rodríguez González (ed.), Libro do Concello de Santiago (1416-1422). Santiago de Compostela: Consello da Cultura Galega, page 75:

     Iten a libra dos rodavallos et do mero a seis dineiros cada libra

     Item, the pound of turbots and of grouper fish, six diñeiros each pound

Derived terms

• mero de altura

References

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “mero”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “mero”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “mero”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “mero”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “mero”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Hiri Motu

Noun

mero (plural memero)

1. boy
2. bachelor

Ingrian

Etymology

From meri (“sea”) +‎ -o.

Pronunciation

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈmero/, [ˈme̞ro̞ˑ]
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈmeroi̯/, [ˈme̞ro̞i̯]
• Rhymes: -ero, -eroi̯
• Hyphenation: me‧ro

Noun

mero

1. (folk poetic) synonym of meri
   • 1915, Volmari Porkka, quoting Oute Loan kylästä, “1140. Soikkola, Tarinaisi, III2”, in Väinö Salminen, editor, Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot. Länsi-Inkerin runot‎^[2], volume III1, Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, lines 9-10:

     Löysi mättään meroista // Yhen mättään sinniisen,

     She found a hillock in the sea // One blue hillock,

Declension

Declension of mero (type 4/koivu, no gradation, gemination)
	singular	plural
nominative	mero	merot
genitive	meron	merroin, meroloin
partitive	merroa	meroja, meroloja
illative	merroo	merroi, meroloihe
inessive	meros	merois, merolois
elative	merost	meroist, meroloist
allative	merolle	meroille, meroloille
adessive	merol	meroil, meroloil
ablative	merolt	meroilt, meroloilt
translative	meroks	meroiks, meroloiks
essive	meronna, merroon	meroinna, meroloinna, merroin, meroloin
exessive1)	meront	meroint, meroloint
1) obsolete *) the accusative corresponds with either the genitive (sg) or nominative (pl) **) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka? or -kä? to the genitive.

References

• Ruben E. Nirvi (1971), Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 306

Italian

Etymology

From Latin merus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛ.ro/
• Rhymes: -ɛro
• Hyphenation: mè‧ro

Adjective

mero (feminine mera, masculine plural meri, feminine plural mere)

1. mere, pure, simple, sheer

Derived terms

• meramente

Anagrams

• Remo, Rome, ermo, more, orme, remo, remò

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛ.roː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛː.ro]

Noun

merō

1. dative/ablative singular of merum

Adjective

merō

1. dative/ablative masculine/neuter singular of merus

Middle English

Noun

mero

1. (Late Middle English, Lincolnshire) alternative form of mirour

Murui Huitoto

mero
Root	Classifier
mero-	—

Mero.

Etymology

Cognates include Minica Huitoto mero and Nüpode Huitoto mero.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛɾɔ]
• Hyphenation: me‧ro

Noun

mero (collective meronɨaɨ)

1. collared peccary

Declension

Declension of mero

	singular	plural
absolutive	mero	—
nominative	merodɨ	—
accusative	merona	—
dative/locative	meromo	—
ablative	meromona	—
instrumental	merodo	—
causal	merori	—
privative	meronino	—
sequential	meronona	—

Synonyms

• (avoidance) obedo

References

• Shirley Burtch (1983), Diccionario Huitoto Murui (Tomo I) (Linguistica Peruana No. 20)‎^[3] (in Spanish), Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, page 177
• Katarina Izabela Wojtylak (2015), “Fruits for Animals: Hunting Avoidance Speech Style in Murui (Witoto, Northwest Amazonia)”, in Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, volume 41, number 41, pages 545-562
• Katarzyna Izabela Wojtylak (2017), A grammar of Murui (Bue): a Witotoan language of Northwest Amazonia.‎^[4], Townsville: James Cook University press (PhD thesis), page 246

Old High German

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *maiʀō, see also Old Saxon mēro, Old English māra, Dutch meer, Old Norse meiri, Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌶𐌰 (maiza).

Adverb

mēro

1. more

Descendants

• Middle High German: mēr, mēre
  • Alemannic German: meer
  • German: mehr
  • Yiddish: מער (mer)

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *maiʀō (“more”), see also Old English māra, Old Frisian māra, Dutch meer, Old High German mēro, Old Norse meiri, Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌶𐌰 (maiza).

Adverb

mēro

1. more

Descendants

• Middle Low German: mêr
  • Low German: mehr
  • Plautdietsch: mea

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin merus.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛ.ɾu/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛ.ɾu/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛ.ɾo/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛ.ɾu/

• Hyphenation: me‧ro

Adjective

mero (feminine mera, masculine plural meros, feminine plural meras)

1. mere (no more than)

Further reading

• “mero”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “mero”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmeɾo/ [ˈme.ɾo]

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɾo
• Syllabification: me‧ro

Etymology 1

From Latin merus.

Adjective

mero (feminine mera, masculine plural meros, feminine plural meras)

1. mere

   la mera presencia de alguien ― someone's mere presence

   Lo enfurece la mera existencia de la cerveza sin alcohol.

   The mere existence of non-alcoholic beer infuriates him.

2. pure

   Synonym: puro

3. (Mexico) very, plain, simple (used for emphasis)

   La mera verdad es... ― The plain truth is...

Adverb

mero

1. (Mexico, Central America) just about, almost

   Ya mero llegamos.

   We are almost there.

2. (Mexico, Central America) exactly, precisely

   mero adelante ― right ahead

Etymology 2

Possibly loaned from Catalan nero, from Latin Nerō, compared to the Roman emperor for its fierceness. Compare Old Occitan mero(n).

Noun

mero m (plural meros)

1. grouper (fish)

   Synonym: cherna

Derived terms

• mero mero
• mero murique

Descendants

• → English: mero

Further reading

• “mero”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• “mero”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010