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Mean vs End - What's the difference?

mean | end |

As nouns the difference between mean and end

is that mean is middle while end is a key that when pressed causes the cursor to go to the last character of the current line.

As an adjective mean

is mid, central.

mean

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) .

Verb

  • To intend.
  • # (label) To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention.
  • # (label) To have intentions of a given kind.
  • #
  • To convey meaning.
  • # (label) To convey (a given sense); to signify, or indicate (an object or idea).
  • #* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=5 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= A better waterworks , passage=An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.}}
  • # (label) Of a word, symbol etc: to have reference to, to signify.
  • #*
  • A term should be included if it's likely that someone would run across it and want to know what it means'. This in turn leads to the somewhat more formal guideline of including a term if it is '''attested''' and ' idiomatic .
  • (label) To have conviction in (something said or expressed); to be sincere in (what one says).
  • (label) To result in; to bring about.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 19, author=Paul fletcher, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Blackpool 1-2 West Ham , passage=It was a goal that meant West Ham won on their first appearance at Wembley in 31 years, in doing so becoming the first team since Leicester in 1996 to bounce straight back to the Premier League through the play-offs.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.
  • (label) To be important (to).
  • Synonyms
    * (convey, signify, indicate ): convey, indicate, signify * (want or intend to convey ): imply, mean to say * (intend; plan on doing ): intend * (have conviction in what one says ): be serious * (have intentions of a some kind ): * (result in; bring about ): bring about, cause, lead to, result in

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), (m), from (etyl) ((etyl) (m)).

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (obsolete) Common; general.
  • Of a common or low origin, grade, or quality; common; humble.
  • Low in quality or degree; inferior; poor; shabby.
  • Without dignity of mind; destitute of honour; low-minded; spiritless; base.
  • a mean motive
  • * Dryden
  • Can you imagine I so mean could prove, / To save my life by changing of my love?
  • Of little value or account; worthy of little or no regard; contemptible; despicable.
  • * J. Philips
  • The Roman legions and great Caesar found / Our fathers no mean foes.
  • Niggardly; penurious; miserly; stingy.
  • Disobliging; pettily offensive or unaccommodating; small.
  • Selfish; acting without consideration of others; unkind.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=20 citation , passage=The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen. No one queried it. It was in the classic pattern of human weakness, mean and embarrassing and sad.}}
  • Causing or intending to cause intentional harm; bearing ill will towards another; cruel; malicious.
  • Powerful; fierce; harsh; damaging.
  • Accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with.
  • (informal, often, childish) Difficult, tricky.
  • Synonyms
    * (causing or intending to cause intentional harm ): cruel, malicious, nasty, spiteful * See also * (acting without consideration of others ): selfish, unkind, vile, ignoble * (powerful ): damaging, fierce, harsh, strong * (accomplished with great skill; deft; hard to compete with''): deft, skilful (''UK''), skillful (''US ), top-notch * (inferior''): cheap, grotty (slang), inferior, low-quality, naff (''UK slang ), rough and ready, shoddy, tacky (informal)
    Derived terms
    * meandom * meanie * meanness * meany

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) (m) ((etyl) (m)), . Cognate with (m).

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Having the mean (see noun below ) as its value.
  • (obsolete) Middling; intermediate; moderately good, tolerable.
  • *, II.ii.2:
  • I have declared in the causes what harm costiveness hath done in procuring this disease; if it be so noxious, the opposite must needs be good, or mean at least, as indeed it is […].
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
  • being of middle age and a mean stature
  • * Milton
  • according to the fittest style of lofty, mean , or lowly
    Derived terms
    * mean distance * mean time * mean solar time * mean sun

    Noun

    (wikipedia mean) (en noun)
  • * 1603 , John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays , II.5:
  • To say truth, it is a meane full of uncertainty and danger.
  • * Coleridge
  • You may be able, by this mean , to review your own scientific acquirements.
  • * Sir W. Hamilton
  • Philosophical doubt is not an end, but a mean .
  • * 2011 , "Rival visions", The Economist , 14 Apr 2011:
  • Mr Obama produced an only slightly less ambitious goal for deficit reduction than the House Republicans, albeit working from a more forgiving baseline: $4 trillion over 12 years compared to $4.4 trillion over 10 years. But the means by which he would achieve it are very different.
  • (obsolete, in the singular) An intermediate step or intermediate steps.
  • * a.'' 1563 , Thomas Harding, "To the Reader", in ''The Works of John Jewel (1845 ed.)
  • Verily in this treatise this hath been mine only purpose; and the mean to bring the same to effect hath been such as whereby I studied to profit wholesomely, not to please delicately.
  • * 1606 , The Trials of Robert Winter, Thomas Winter, Guy Fawkes, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Rob. Keyes, Thomas Bates, and Sir Everard Digby, at Westminster, for High Treason, being Conspirators in the Gunpowder-Plot
  • That it was lawful and meritorious to kill and destroy the king, and all the said hereticks. — The mean to effect it, they concluded to be, that, 1. The king, the queen, the prince, the lords spiritual and temporal, the knights and burgoses of the parliament, should be blown up with powder. 2. That the whole royal issue male should be destroyed. S. That they would lake into their custody Elizabeth and Mary the king's daughters, and proclaim the lady Elizabeth queen. 4. That they should feign a Proclamation in the name of Elizabeth, in which no mention should be made of alteration of religion, nor that they were parties to the treason, until they had raised power to perform the same; and then to proclaim, all grievances in the kingdom should be reformed.
  • * a.'' 1623 ,
  • Apply desperate physic: / We must not now use balsamum, but fire, / The smarting cupping-glass, for that's the mean / To purge infected blood, such blood as hers.
  • Something which is intermediate or in the middle; an intermediate value or range of values; a medium.
  • *
  • *
  • * 1875 , William Smith and Samuel Cheetham, editors, A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities'', , volume 1, page 10, s.v. ''Accentus Ecclesiasticus ,
  • It presents a sort of mean between speech and song, continually inclining towards the latter, never altogether leaving its hold on the former; it is speech, though always attuned speech, in passages of average interest and importance; it is song, though always distinct and articulate song, in passages demanding more fervid utterance.
  • * 1624 , John Smith, Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, p. 147:
  • Of these [rattles] they have Base, Tenor, Countertenor, Meane , and Treble.
  • (statistics) The average of a set of values, calculated by summing them together and dividing by the number of terms; the arithmetic mean.
  • (mathematics) Any function of multiple variables that satisfies certain properties and yields a number representative of its arguments; or, the number so yielded; a measure of central tendency.
  • * 1997 , Angus Deaton, The Analysis of Household Surveys: A Microeconometric Approach to Development Policy , ] World Bank Publications, ISBN 9780801852541, [http://books.google.com/books?id=5Lp_p6bLD2IC&pg=PA51&dq=mean page 51:
  • Note that (1.41) is simply the probability-weighted mean without any explicit allowance for the stratification; each observation is weighted by its inflation factor and the total divided by the total of the inflation factors for the survey.
  • * 2002 , Clifford A. Pickover, The Mathematics of Oz: Mental Gymnastics from Beyond the Edge , Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521016780, page 246:
  • Luckily, even though the arithmetic mean' is unusable, both the harmonic and geometric ' means settle to precise values as the amount of data increases.
  • * 2003 , P. S. Bullen, Handbook of Means and Their Inequalities , Springer, ISBN 978-1-4020-1522-9, page 251:
  • The generalized power means' include power '''means''', certain Gini '''means''', in particular the counter-harmonic ' means .
  • (mathematics) Either of the two numbers in the middle of a conventionally presented proportion, as 2'' and ''3'' in ''1:2=3:6 .
  • * 1825 , John Farrar, translator, An Elementary Treatise on Arithmetic by Silvestre François Lacroix, third edition, page 102,
  • ...if four numbers be in proportion, the product of the first and last, or of the two extremes, is equal to the product of the second and third, or of the two means .
  • * 1999 , Dawn B. Sova, How to Solve Word Problems in Geometry , McGraw-Hill, ISBN 007134652X, page 85,
  • Using the means'-extremes property of proportions, you know that the product of the extremes equals the product of the '''means'''. The ratio ''t''/4 = 5/2 can be rewritten as ''t'':4 = 5:2, in which the extremes are ''t'' and 2, and the ' means are 4 and 5.
  • * 2007 , Carolyn C. Wheater, Homework Helpers: Geometry , Career Press, ISBN 1564147215, page 99,
  • In \frac{18}{27}=\frac23, the product of the means is 2\cdot27, and the product of the extremes is 18\cdot3. Both products are 54.
    Hypernyms
    * (statistics) measure of central tendency, measure of location, sample statistic
    Coordinate terms
    * (statistics) median, mode
    See also
    * (statistics) spread, range
    Derived terms
    * arithmetic mean * * Chisini mean * contraharmonic mean * generalised f -mean * generalized f -mean * geometric mean * harmonic mean * Heronian mean * * logarithmic mean * power mean * quadratic mean * quasi-arithmetic mean * root mean square

    Etymology 4

    From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) ; see (l).

    Verb

  • To complain, lament.
  • To pity; to comfort.
  • * 1485 , Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur , Book XII:
  • Anone he meaned hym, and wolde have had hym home unto his ermytage.

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * (l), (l), (l), (l), (l), (l), (l), (l) English irregular verbs English terms with multiple etymologies 1000 English basic words ----

    end

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (rfc-sense) The final point of something in space or time.
  • * 1908: (Kenneth Grahame), (The Wind in the Willows)
  • they followed him... into a sort of a central hall; out of which they could dimly see other long tunnel-like passages branching, passages mysterious and without apparent end .
  • * , chapter=4
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.}}
  • The cessation of an effort, activity, state, or motion.
  • Is there no end to this madness?
  • Death, especially miserable.
  • He met a terrible end in the jungle.
    I hope the end comes quickly.
  • * (rfdate) Shakespeare
  • Confound your hidden falsehood, and award / Either of you to be the other's end .
  • * (rfdate) Alexander Pope
  • unblamed through life, lamented in thy end
  • Result.
  • * (rfdate) Shakespeare
  • O that a man might know / The end of this day's business ere it come!
  • A purpose, goal, or aim.
  • * (rfdate) Dryden
  • Losing her, the end of living lose.
  • * (rfdate) Coleridge
  • When every man is his own end , all things will come to a bad end.
  • * 1946 , (Bertrand Russell), History of Western Philosophy , I.21:
  • There is a long argument to prove that foreign conquest is not the end of the State, showing that many people took the imperialist view.
  • (cricket) One of the two parts of the ground used as a descriptive name for half of the ground.
  • (American football) The position at the end of either the offensive or defensive line, a tight end, a split end, a defensive end.
  • * 1926 , , (The Great Gatsby) , Penguin 2000, p. 11:
  • Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven [...].
  • (curling) A period of play in which each team throws eight rocks, two per player, in alternating fashion.
  • (mathematics) An ideal point of a graph or other complex.
  • That which is left; a remnant; a fragment; a scrap.
  • odds and ends
  • * (rfdate) Shakespeare
  • I clothe my naked villainy / With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ, / And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
  • One of the yarns of the worsted warp in a Brussels carpet.
  • Usage notes

    * Adjectives often used with "end": final, ultimate, deep, happy, etc.

    Synonyms

    * (final point in space or time) conclusion, limit, terminus, termination * See also

    Antonyms

    * (final point of something) beginning, start

    Derived terms

    * at the end of the day * big end * bitter end * dead-end * East End * -ended * endless * endlike * endly * End of Days * end of the line * end of the road * endpaper * end piece, endpiece * end product * endsay * end times * end-to-end * endward * endways, endwise * high-end * know which end is up * living end * loose end * low-end * make ends meet * off the deep end * on end * rear end * short end of the stick * split end * The End * tight end * to this end * up-end * West End * week-end, weekend * without end

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (ergative) To finish, terminate.
  • * Bible, (w) ii. 2
  • On the seventh day God ended his work.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • I shall end this strife.
  • * 1896 , , (A Shropshire Lad), XLV, lines 7-8:
  • But play the man, stand up and end you
    When your sickness is your soul.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-11-09, volume=409, issue=8861, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= How to stop the fighting, sometimes , passage=Ending civil wars is hard. Hatreds within countries often run far deeper than between them. The fighting rarely sticks to battlefields, as it can do between states. Civilians are rarely spared. And there are no borders to fall back behind.}}

    Derived terms

    * ending * end up * never-ending * unending

    Statistics

    *