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Only vs Mere - What's the difference?

only | mere |

In obsolete terms the difference between only and mere

is that only is above all others; particularly while mere is nothing less than; complete, downright .

As adjectives the difference between only and mere

is that only is alone in a category while mere is famous.

As nouns the difference between only and mere

is that only is only child while mere is the sea.

As an adverb only

is without others or anything further; exclusively.

As a conjunction only

is under the condition that; but.

As a verb mere is

to limit; bound; divide or cause division in.

only

English

Alternative forms

* onely (obsolete)

Adjective

(-)
  • Alone in a category.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author= Nick Miroff
    • , volume=189, issue=7, page=32, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Mexico gets a taste for eating insects , passage=The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile. Only the city zoo offers greater species diversity.}}
  • Singularly Superior; the best.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
    • Motley's the only wear.
  • Without sibling; without a sibling of the same gender.
  • * 1949 , and (Ernestine Gilbreth Carey), (Cheaper by the Dozen) , dedication:
    • To DAD ¶ who only reared twelve children ¶ and ¶ To MOTHER ¶ who reared twelve only children
  • (label) Mere.
  • * , I.40:
    • I know some who wittingly have drawne both profit and preferment from cuckoldrie, the only name whereof is so yrksome and bail-ful to so many men.

    Synonyms

    * (alone in a category) sole, lone * (singularly superior) peerless, unequaled, nonpareil

    Derived terms

    * if any * if only * one and only * only child * only game in town * only if

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Without others or anything further; exclusively.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author= Ed Pilkington
    • , volume=188, issue=26, page=6, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= ‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told , passage=In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.}}
  • No more than; just.
  • * 1949 , Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, (Cheaper by the Dozen) , dedication:
    • To DAD
    who only reared twelve children
    and
    To MOTHER
    who reared twelve only children
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=20 citation , passage=‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • As recently as.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).}}
  • (obsolete) Above all others; particularly.
  • * Marston
    • his most only elected mistress

    Derived terms

    * if and only if * only if

    Conjunction

    (English Conjunctions)
  • Under the condition that; but.
  • However.
  • But for the fact that; except.

    • Related terms

    * if only

    Statistics

    *

    Noun

    (onlies)
  • (rare) only child
  • * 2013 , Sybil L. Hart, ?Maria Legerstee, Handbook of Jealousy
    • The consistent finding that infants who are onlies do not differ from those who have siblings despite their lesser history of exposure to differential treatment is perplexing.

    Anagrams

    * * 100 English basic words English coordinating conjunctions English focus adverbs 1000 English basic words

    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

    * ----