Word.ws English Dictionary

mean to say

mean to say verb: to imply or intend to convey with one's words; used to correct or clarify one's previous utterance, or to seek such clarification.

Verb

mean to say (third-person singular simple present means to say, present participle meaning to say, simple past and past participle meant to say)

  1. To imply or intend to convey with one's words; used to correct or clarify one's previous utterance, or to seek such clarification.
    • "[…] It is a match that must give universal satisfaction. In short, it is a kind of thing that" — lowering his voice to an important whisper — "will be exceedingly welcome to all parties." Recollecting himself, however, he added, "That is, I mean to say—your friends are all truly anxious to see you...1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
    • "You wicked boy, do you mean to say you've left those poor children there alone in the pigstye?"1919, H. H. Munro, “Hyacinth”, in The Toys of Peace and Other Papers

Forms of mean to say

third-person singular presentmeans to say
present participlemeaning to say
past participlemeant to say
pastmeant to say

Questions about mean to say

What does mean to say mean?
Mean to say means to imply or intend to convey with one's words; used to correct or clarify one's previous utterance, or to seek such clarification.
What part of speech is mean to say?
Mean to say is a verb.
What is the past tense of mean to say?
The past tense of mean to say is meant to say.

Words near mean to say in the dictionary

  1. mean the world to
  2. mean time
  3. mean time to failure
  4. mean times
  5. mean to
  6. mean to say
  7. mean value theorem
  8. mean value theorems
  9. mean well
  10. mean white
  11. mean whites

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mean to say (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “mean to say.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mean_to_say. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.