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PlainSpell

meagre

mea·gre/ˈmiːɡəɹ/noun, adjective, verb

meagre is spelled M-E-A-G-R-E: 6 letters and 2 syllables (mea·gre). It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, meagre means “An edible fish, of species Argyrosomus regius, of the family Sciaenidae, found from the Black Sea to the eastern Atlantic” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of meagre is meagres.

How many letters and syllables are in meagre?

Letters6: M-E-A-G-R-E
Syllables2: mea·gre
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 34,504th 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 meagre?

Meagre appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 34,504th 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 meagre?

  • US /ˈmiːɡəɹ/
  • UK /ˈmiːɡə/

Meagre has 2 syllables, split mea·gre in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-meagre.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with meagre?

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

Spelled with the same letters in another order: meager.

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 meagre

  • meagres plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • meagrer comparative
  • meagrest superlative
  • meager
  • meagring participle, present
  • meagred participle, past

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

What does meagre mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    An edible fish, of species Argyrosomus regius, of the family Sciaenidae, found from the Black Sea to the eastern Atlantic.

adjective

  1. 1

    CanadaUKHaving little flesh; lean; thin.

  2. 2

    CanadaUKDeficient or inferior in amount, quality or extent

    Nothing will grow in this meagre soil.

  3. 3

    CanadaUKOf 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

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

verb

  1. 1

    CanadaUKTo make lean.

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

Meagre in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchmaigre (Argyrosomus regius)
GermanAdlerfisch (Argyrosomus regius)
Portuguesecorvina (Argyrosomus regius)
Spanishcorvina (Argyrosomus regius), escuálido, enjuto (having little flesh; lean; thin), exiguo (deficient or inferior in amount, quality or…)

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 meagre come from?

From Middle French maigre.

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

What to look up after meagre