mere
n.n. used to emphasize how small, simple, or unimportant something is. You use it when you want to show that something is 'only' what you are describing and nothing more.
n. used to emphasize that the subject is nothing more than what is specified. Attributive only — it must precede the noun it modifies and cannot be used as a predicate adjective.
The whole trip cost a mere ten dollars.
She was a mere child when she first started performing on the professional stage.
The document was dismissed as a mere formality, yet its clauses contained the legal mechanisms that would eventually dismantle the entire corporation.
From Middle English mere, mer, from Anglo-Norman meer, from Old French mier, from Latin merus (“pure, unmixed, undiluted”), from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to sparkle, gleam”). Cognate with Old English āmerian, āmyrian (“to purify, examine, revise”). The Middle English word was perhaps influenced by or conflated with sound-alike Middle English mere (“glorious, noble, splendid, fine, pure”), from Old English mǣre (“famous, great, excellent, sublime, splendid, pure, sterling”), from Proto-West Germanic mārī, from Proto-Germanic mērijaz.
From Middle English mere, from Old English mǣre, ġemǣre (“boundary; limit”), from Proto-Germanic mairiją (“boundary”), from Proto-Indo-European mey- (“to fence”). Cognate with Dutch meer (“a limit, boundary”), Icelandic mærr (“borderland”), Swedish landamäre (“border, borderline, boundary”).
From Middle English mere, from Old English mere (“lake, pool,” in compounds and poetry “sea”), from Proto-West Germanic mari (“sea”), from Proto-Germanic mari, from Proto-Indo-European *móri. Cognate with West Frisian mar, 'lake', Dutch meer, 'lake', Low German Meer, and German Meer, 'sea'. Non-Germanic cognates include Latin mare, Breton mor, and Russian мо́ре (móre). Doublet of maar and mare (“a large, dark plain; a lake on Titan”).
See mayor.
Borrowed from Māori mere (“more”).
The adjective is strictly attributive; you can say 'a mere scratch' but not 'the scratch was mere'.
The cost was mere.The cost was a mere ten dollars.Mere cannot be used alone after a verb like 'be'; it must always sit directly before a noun.