# meek

> English word · Adjective · IPA /miːk/ · frequency rank #19,136

## Definitions
1. Humble, non-boastful, modest, meager, or self-effacing.
2. Submissive, dispirited, cowed.

## Etymology
From Middle English meek, meke, meoc, probably a borrowing from Old Norse mjúkr (“soft; meek”), from Proto-Germanic *meukaz, *mūkaz (“soft; supple”), from Proto-Indo-European *mewg-, *mewk- (“slick, slippery; to slip”); compare Old English smēag (“subtle, stealthy, etc.”) and smūgan.
Cognate with Swedish and Norwegian Nynorsk mjuk (“soft”), Norwegian Bokmål myk (“soft”), and Danish myg (“supple”), Dutch muik (“soft, overripe”), dialectal German mauch (“dry and decayed, rotten”), Mauche (“malanders”). Compare as well Welsh mwyth (“soft, weak”), Latin ēmungō (“to blow one's nose”), Tocharian A muk- (“to let go, give up”), Lithuanian mùkti (“to slip away from”), Ancient Greek μύσσομαι (mússomai, “to blow the nose”), Sanskrit मु॒ञ्चति॑ (muñcáti, “to release, let loose”).

## Easily confused with
- **MK** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mk)
- **men** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-men)
- **met** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-met)
- **mel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mel)
- **moe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-moe)
- **meh** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-meh)
- **Mei** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mei)
- **mer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mer)
- **MEP** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mep)
- **mes** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mes)
- **mew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mew)
- **mex** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mex)
- **Mme** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mme)
- **MLK** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mlk)
- **mem** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mem)
- **MEK** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mek)
- **Mie** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-mie)
- **meu** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-meu)
- **meet** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-meet)
- **milk** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/meek-vs-milk)

## Common misspellings (4)
`emek`, `meekk`, `meke`, `mmeek`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/meek