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# mean

«mean» in Mova's school dictionary: **to have a sense: What does this word mean?** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (mean, means, meant, meaning); adjective (mean, meaner, meanest); noun (the mean — average)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To mean is to have a sense: What does this word mean? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#m1)

2) To mean is to want to say: I mean the red one. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#m2)

3) To mean to do something is to plan it: I didn't mean to break it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#m3)

4) Mean (adjective) means unkind: Don't be mean. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#m4)

5) In maths, the mean is the average: add the numbers and divide by how many there are. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#m5)

6) Means, in the plural, is money or wealth, so a man of means is a rich man. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#m6)

### sense in the lessons

what a word stands for in the operation («Coming together means adding»); a word's meaning can change with the words around it; in maths the mean (average); in everyday life «I didn't mean it», «mean» as unkind; in friendship and safety: tell an adult if someone is mean to you again and again

### examples

- Coming together means adding; going away means subtracting. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#x1)
- Here the word «more» does not mean adding … [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#x2)
- «Half» means one of two equal parts. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#x3)
- What does «huge» mean? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#x4)
- Sorry, I didn't mean to bump you. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#x5)
- It's mean to laugh at someone who falls. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#x6)
- A red light means stop. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#x7)
- The mean of 2, 4 and 6 is 4. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#x8)
- He was a man of means. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/#x9)

### note

A word's meaning can change with the words around it. Past «meant» (say «ment»). Noun «meaning». Trap: «mean» as unkind and «the mean» as average are different words with the same spelling.

### In the corpora

- [Night shifts mean working through the night and sleeping in the day; nurses, drivers, bakers and warehouse workers often do them.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/2-shifts-nights-and-other-ways-of-working/6/)
- [Job hunting means searching adverts and sending applications, often dozens before getting anywhere; many get no reply at all.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/3-finding-a-job-and-getting-on/5/)
- [Retiring means stopping paid work for good, usually in your sixties, and living on a pension and savings.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/3-finding-a-job-and-getting-on/16/)
- [Starting a new job means learning new systems, names and rules all at once, so people come home tired.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/3-finding-a-job-and-getting-on/18/)
- [Burnout means being worn down by too much work and stress for too long, until even small tasks feel huge.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/4-when-work-goes-wrong/15/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «mean» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/mean/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.