Word.ws English Dictionary

mer-

UK/ˈmɜː//ˈmɝ/

mer- prefix: sea; marine; applied to beings that are fully or partly sea-creatures. Also the alternative form of mero-.

Prefix (1)

mer-

  1. sea; marine; applied to beings that are fully or partly sea-creatures.
    • mercow, mermaid, merman, merswine, mersnake

Prefix (2)

mer-

  1. Of, pertaining to, or associated with the realm of mermaids and mermen.
    • merlady, merfolk, merwife, mermonster

Also used as

mer- is also the alternative form of mero-.

Origin of mer-

From Middle English mere-, from Old English mere-, from Proto-Germanic *mari-, from Proto-Germanic *mari (“sea”). More at mere.

Extracted from merman, mermaid.

Questions about mer-

What does mer- mean?
Mer- means sea; marine; applied to beings that are fully or partly sea-creatures.
What part of speech is mer-?
Mer- is a prefix.
How do you pronounce mer-?
Mer- is pronounced /ˈmɜː/ (UK).

Words near mer- in the dictionary

  1. mequbbal
  2. mequinol
  3. mequitazine
  4. mer
  5. Mer de Glace
  6. mer-
  7. mer-creature
  8. mer-creatures
  9. mer-mouse
  10. mer-wolf
  11. mer-wolves

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mer- (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-mer-.wav.

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