Means

How to spell means

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce means

What does means mean?

1. nounA method, action, or system by which a result is achieved.
2. nounThe financial resources or money a person has available.
3. verbThird-person singular of 'mean': signifies or intends.

Means in a sentence

• noun

  Email remains the fastest means of reaching the whole team.

• noun

  The holiday was well beyond their modest means.

• verb

  The red light means that you must stop the car.

• noun

  The company explored every means of cutting its overheads.

• noun

  As a man of considerable means, he funded the new clinic himself.

• verb

  She always means well, even when her advice goes wrong.

Where does means come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The noun and verb forms here trace back to two closely linked Old English roots. The verb sense comes from Old English mǣnan, which meant to intend, to have in mind, or to signify, and it is related to German meinen, to think or believe. The noun 'means', signifying a method or resource, developed from this same idea of what one intends or has at one's disposal, reinforced by the Latin medianus (in the middle) through the Old French moiien, the source of 'mean' in the sense of an intermediate point or instrument. By the late Middle Ages the plural form 'means' was already being used as a singular for a way of achieving something, as in 'a means to an end'. The financial sense, money and resources at one's command, grew naturally from this and was common by the 1600s. Because the modern word blends these strands, the spelling stays simple and regular, ending in the usual -s.

How the word is built

• mean (from Old English mǣnan: to intend, signify)
• -s (plural noun / third-person verb ending)