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Mere vs Almost - What's the difference?

mere | almost |

As nouns the difference between mere and almost

is that mere is fear, awe while almost is (informal) something or someone that doesn't quite make it.

As an adverb almost is

very close to, but not quite.

mere

English

(wikipedia mere)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) mere, from (etyl) .

Alternative forms

* (l), (l), (l)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) the sea
  • (dialectal, or, literary) a pool; a small lake or pond; marsh
    • (Drayton)
    (Tennyson)
  • * 1955 , William Golding, The Inheritors , Faber & Faber 2005, p. 194:
    • Lok got to his feet and wandered along by the marshes towards the mere where Fa had disappeared.
    Derived terms
    * mereswine * mermaid * merman * merfolk

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl), from (etyl) .

    Alternative forms

    * (l), (l), (l), (l)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • boundary, limit; a boundary-marker; boundary-line
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.ix:
    • The Troian Brute'' did first that Citie found, / And ''Hygate'' made the meare thereof by West, / And ''Ouert gate by North: that is the bound / Toward the land; two riuers bound the rest.

    Verb

    (mer)
  • (obsolete) To limit; bound; divide or cause division in.
  • (obsolete) To set divisions and bounds.

    • Etymology 3

    From (etyl), from (etyl) .

    Alternative forms

    * (l), (l)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) famous.

    • Etymology 4

    From (etyl) meer, from (etyl) mier, from (etyl) merus. Perhaps influenced by (etyl) , or conflated with Etymology 3.

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (label) Pure, unalloyed .
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.8:
    • So oft as I this history record, / My heart doth melt with meere compassion.
  • * , I.56:
    • Meere .
  • (label) Nothing less than; complete, downright .
  • * , II.3.7:
    • If every man might have what he wouldwe should have another chaos in an instant, a meer confusion.
  • Just, only; no more than , pure and simple, neither more nor better than might be expected.
  • *
    • Thus the red damask curtains which now shut out the fog-laden, drizzling atmosphere of the Marylebone Road, had cost a mere song, and yet they might have been warranted to last another thirty years. A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor;.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=(Edwin Black)
    • , chapter=2, title= Internal Combustion , passage=More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
    • , author=, volume=100, issue=2, page=106 , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Pixels or Perish , passage=Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.}}
    Derived terms
    * merely

    Etymology 5

    From (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • a Maori war-club

    • Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    almost

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (Jamaican English)

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Very close to, but not quite.
    • Almost all people went there. - Not all but very close to it.
    We almost missed the train. - Not missed but very close to it.
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited.}}
  • * , chapter=17
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=9 citation , passage=Eustace gaped at him in amazement. When his urbanity dropped away from him, as now, he had an innocence of expression which was almost infantile. It was as if the world had never touched him at all.}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17, author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot
    • , title=Money just makes the rich suffer , volume=188, issue=23, page=19, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) citation , passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […]  The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra–wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.}}

    Synonyms

    * nearly, nigh, well-nigh, near, close to, next to, practically, virtually

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (informal) Something or someone that doesn't quite make it.
    • In all the submissions, they found four papers that were clearly worth publishing and another dozen almosts .

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * English degree adverbs