Usually means: Only, simply, nothing more than.
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We found 30 dictionaries that define the word merely:

General (28 matching dictionaries)
  1. merely: Merriam-Webster.com
  2. merely: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries
  3. merely: American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
  4. merely: Collins English Dictionary
  5. merely: Vocabulary.com
  6. Merely, merely: Wordnik
  7. merely: Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
  8. merely: Wiktionary
  9. merely: Webster's New World College Dictionary, 4th Ed.
  10. merely: The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus
  11. merely: Infoplease Dictionary
  12. Merely, merely: Dictionary.com
  13. merely: Cambridge Essential American English Dictionary
  14. Merely: Online Plain Text English Dictionary
  15. merely: Webster's Revised Unabridged, 1913 Edition
  16. merely: Rhymezone
  17. merely: AllWords.com Multi-Lingual Dictionary
  18. merely: Webster's 1828 Dictionary
  19. merely: Free Dictionary
  20. merely: Mnemonic Dictionary
  21. merely: LookWAYup Translating Dictionary/Thesaurus
  22. merely: Wikimedia Commons US English Pronunciations
  23. merely: Dictionary/thesaurus

Art (1 matching dictionary)
  1. Shakespeare Glossary (No longer online)

Business (1 matching dictionary)
  1. merely: Legal dictionary

(Note: See mere as well.)

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Definitions from Wiktionary (
)
American English Definition British English Definition
▸ adverb:  (focus) Without any other reason etc.; only, just, and nothing more.
▸ adverb:  (obsolete) Wholly, entirely.

Similar:
simply, just, but, only, essentially, necessarily, actually, hardly, purely, thus, more...

Opposite:
wholly, completely, entirely, fully, absolutely

Types:
just, simply, only, barely, hardly, scarcely, more...

Phrases:
merely a thought, not merely smoldering, shows it merely, more than merely competent, merely only, more...



▸ Words similar to merely

▸ Usage examples for merely

▸ Idioms related to merely

▸ Wikipedia articles (New!)

▸ Words that often appear near merely

▸ Rhymes of merely

▸ Invented words related to merely

Similar:
simply, just, but, only, essentially, necessarily, actually, hardly, purely, thus, more...

Opposite:
wholly, completely, entirely, fully, absolutely

Types:
just, simply, only, barely, hardly, scarcely, more...

Phrases:
merely a thought, not merely smoldering, shows it merely, more than merely competent, merely only, opposite of merely, becomes merely, not merely, merely speaks, merely human, more...



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