Meer or mere?
meer is a noun meaning “A boundary”; mere is an adjective meaning “Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might…”. Use meer as a noun and mere as an adjective (mere is also a noun: “Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) mere is about 32 times as common as meer.
What is the difference between meer and mere?
| meer | mere | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | adjective, noun, verb, suffix |
| Meaning | A boundary | Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line To decide upon the position of a boundary; to position it on a map |
| Example | none recorded | The mere thought of pineapple on pizza makes me want to throw up |
| Forms | meers | merer, merest |
| Pronunciation | /ˈmɪə(ɹ)/ | /mɪə̯/ /mɪː/ /mɪjə/ |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words | 13 times per million words |
Sources: meer and mere in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of meer and mere
meer
- 1
A boundary
mere
- 1
Just, only; no more than, pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected
The mere thought of pineapple on pizza makes me want to throw up
- 2
Boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line
- 3
To decide upon the position of a boundary; to position it on a map
- 4
UKA body of standing water, inclusive of lakes, ponds, and pools, especially any broad and shallow one
- 5
A Maori war-club
- 6
Forming nouns with the sense of part, segment
- 7
A lakeside settlement; combining form of mere
- 8
UKSynonym of marsh
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, meer or mere?
meer appears about once in every 2 million words; mere 13 times per million words.
meer about once in every 2 million wordsmere 13 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search meer vs mere?
“meer vs mere” is searched about 30 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“mere vs meer”, “meer or mere”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.