Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use mean in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, adjective, noun

Mean means to intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention. Example: “I didn't mean to knock your tooth out.”

Examples of mean by meaning

verbTo intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention.

  • I didn't mean to knock your tooth out.
  • I mean to go to Arévalo in Spain this summer; I’ve been meaning to tell you for weeks, but I’ve just found the time.
  • I meant to take the car in for a smog check, but it slipped my mind.

verbTo have as intentions of a given kind.

  • Don't be angry; she meant well.

verbTo intend (something) for a given purpose or fate; to predestine.

  • Actually this desk was meant for the subeditor.
  • Man was not meant to question such things.

verbTo intend an ensuing comment or statement as an explanation.

  • Your reasoning seems needlessly abstruse, complex, and verbose for me. I mean, could you dumb it down for my sake?

verbTo convey (a given sense); to signify, or indicate (an object or idea).

  • The sky is red this morning—does that mean we're in for a storm?
  • An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine.2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, →ISSN, page 5

verbOf a word, symbol etc: to have reference to, to signify.

  • What does this hieroglyph mean?
  • A term should be included if it’s likely that someone would run across it and want to know what it means.2010, Alexander Humez, Nicholas Humez, Rob Flynn, quoting Wiktionary, Short Cuts: A Guide to Oaths, Ring Tones, Ransom Notes, Famous Last...
  • Americans, for example, call newcomers to Antarctica “fingies”, which comes from FNGs – a borrowed military abbreviation that means “Fucking New Guy”.2024 June 20, Eva Corlett, “Fidlets, fingies and riding a doo: study sheds light on Antarctic English slang”, in The Guardian

verbOf a person (or animal etc): to intend to express, to imply, to hint at, to allude.

  • I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean.
  • He’s a little different, if you know what I mean.

verbTo have conviction in (something said or expressed); to be sincere in (what one says).

  • Does she really mean what she said to him last night?
  • Say what you mean and mean what you say.

More sentences with mean

  • You may be my boss, but that doesn't mean you can insult me.From the entry may
  • All unemployments, seasonal, frictional, cyclical, classical, whatever, mean that you're out of work.From the entry unemployment
  • When you say last Monday, do you mean the Monday just gone, or the one before that?From the entry last
  • When he described the settlers' dominance as accomplished, he meant that it was a fait accompli.From the entry accomplished
  • When you say next Thursday, do you mean Thursday this week or Thursday next week?From the entry next
  • Hey, did you mean to leave the airs on all week while you were on vacation?From the entry air
  • I hope you won’t think me stupid if I ask you what that means.From the entry think
  • I don't get what you mean by "fun". This place sucks!From the entry get
  • Hotels that are so priced that only people of means can stay.From the entry means
  • What does it mean to have a pointy chin instead of a flat chin?From the entry chin
  • I meant to pause the picture, but hit the rewind by mistake.From the entry rewind
  • What do you mean "I don't know"? I'm practically spoon-feeding you the answer!From the entry spoon-feed
  • I'm still not quite clear on what some of these words mean.From the entry clear
  • Horses became obsolete means of transportation in cities in the first half of the twentieth century.From the entry obsolete
  • What size are you? I mean, what size shoes do you take?From the entry size
  • I don't mean to put you out. It's just vital that I get this done tonight.From the entry put out
  • The code is full of magic numbers and we can't figure out what they mean.From the entry magic
  • This breakthrough will mean that we spend less on the electricity bill.From the entry will
  • I can’t for the life of me fathom what this means.From the entry fathom
  • She's quite something. I can't believe she would do such a mean thing.From the entry something
  • The naval code is a system of rules for making communications at sea by means of signals.From the entry code
  • Calling a happy person gay seems awfully dated nowadays; people will assume you mean something else.From the entry dated
  • For Freudians, libido means the desire to "unite and bind" with objects in the world.From the entry libido
  • Throwing that punch was a murder whether you meant for it to happen or not.From the entry murder

Meaning of mean

  1. verb To intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention.
  2. verb To have as intentions of a given kind.
  3. verb To intend (something) for a given purpose or fate; to predestine.

Full definition of mean

Questions about mean in a sentence

How do you use mean in a sentence?
Mean is used as a verb, adjective and noun. For example: “I didn't mean to knock your tooth out.”
What is a short sentence with mean?
“What does this hieroglyph mean?”
What does mean mean?
Mean means to intend, to plan (to do); to have as one's intention.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mean (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use mean in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/mean. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.