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PlainSpell

meager

mea·ger/ˈmiɡɚ/adjective, verb

meager is spelled M-E-A-G-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables (mea·ger). It appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,150th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, meager means “Having little flesh; lean; thin” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in meager?

Letters6: M-E-A-G-E-R
Syllables2: mea·ger
In writing1.1 times per million words; the 27,150th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is meager?

Meager appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 27,150th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce meager?

  • US /ˈmiɡɚ/
  • UK /ˈmiːɡə/

Meager has 2 syllables, split mea·ger in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-meager.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with meager?

3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as meager from its last stressed vowel (/iɡəɹ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: meagre.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of meager

  • meagerer comparative
  • meagerest superlative
  • meagre
  • meagers present, singular, he/she/it
  • meagering participle, present
  • meagered participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does meager mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    CanadaUSHaving little flesh; lean; thin.

  2. 2

    CanadaUSPoor, deficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent

    A meager piece of cake in one bite.

  3. 3

    CanadaUSOf a set: such that, considered as a subset of a (usually larger) topological space, it is in a precise sense small or negligible.

  4. 4

    CanadaUSDry and harsh to the touch (e.g., as chalk).

verb

  1. 1

    CanadaUSTo make lean.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Meager in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmaigre (lean), pauvre (poor, deficient or inferior)
Germanmager (lean)
Portuguesemagro (lean), pobre (poor, deficient or inferior)
Spanishmagro (lean), pobre, escaso, deficiente, exiguo, parvo (poor, deficient or inferior)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does meager come from?

From Middle English megre, from Anglo-Norman megre, Old French maigre, from Latin macer, from Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱrós. Akin, through the Indo-European root, to Old English mæġer (“meager, lean”), West Frisian meager (“meager”), Dutch mager (“meager”), German mager, Old Norse magr whence the Icelandic magur, Norwegian Bokmål mager and Danish mager. Doublet of maigre.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

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