Word.ws English Dictionary

men

/mɛn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

pin pen merger/mɪn/

men is the plural of man.

Noun (1)

men pl (plural only)

  1. (collective, dated, plural, plural-only) (The) people, humanity, man(kind).
    • We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.1776 July 4, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
  2. (collective, dated, plural, plural-only) Enlisted personnel (as opposed to commissioned officers).
    • "Muster up the men in the barracks at 0600," the lieutenant said to his sergeant.

Meaning of man

Noun

man (plural men)

  1. An adult male human.
    • The show is especially popular with middle-aged men.
    1. (collective) All human males collectively: mankind.
      • THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.1776 December 19, Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
    2. An adult male who belongs to a particular group: an employee, a representative, etc.
      • When President Roosevelt goes walking in the country about Washington he is always accompanied by two Secret Service men.1909, Harper's Weekly, volume 53, page iii
    3. An adult male who has, to an eminent degree, qualities considered masculine, such as strength, integrity, and devotion to family; a mensch.
      • He’s more a man than any pair of rats of you in this here house[…]1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “In The Enemy’s Camp”, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part VI (Captain Silver), page 234
    4. An adult or adolescent male servant. Anyone from a right-hand man (high-ranking assistant) to a low-ranking servant.
  2. (dated, formal) A human, a person regardless of gender or sex, usually an adult.
    • every man for himself

See all 41 meanings of man

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Men

Men

  1. A god once worshipped in the western interior parts of Anatolia, and associated with lunar symbolism.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Men

Men (plural Mens)

  1. A surname.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Men

Men

  1. The twentieth letter of the Armenian alphabet.

Noun (2) capitalized: MEN

MEN

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of multiple endocrine neoplasia.

Forms of men

pluralMens

Origin of men

From Middle English men, from Old English menn (“people”), from Proto-Germanic *manniz, nominative plural of Proto-Germanic *mann- (“person”). Cognate with German Männer (“men”), Danish mænd (“men”), Swedish män (“men”). More at man.

Words formed from men

Phrases with men

188 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with men

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about men

What does men mean?
Men means (The) people, humanity, man(kind).
What is men the plural of?
Men is the plural of man.
What part of speech is men?
Men can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce men?
Men is pronounced /mɛn/.

Words near men in the dictionary

  1. memsaabs
  2. memsahib
  3. memsahibs
  4. memtransistor
  5. memtransistors
  6. men
  7. men about town
  8. men among men
  9. men children
  10. men Friday
  11. men from Porlock

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: men (page history and authors); Men (page history and authors); MEN (page history and authors); man (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-men.ogg.

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