Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

meek

/mik/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.32 in modern English

Syllables: meek
IPA: /mik/

10

Scrabble Score

4

Letters

1

Syllables

3

Unique Chars

Meaning

adj

Humble, non-boastful, modest, meager, or self-effacing.

adj

Submissive, dispirited, cowed.

verb

To tame; to break (a horse)

American usage

name

name

An unincorporated community in Holt County, Nebraska, United States.

Example Sentences

"Blessed are the meeke: for they shall inherit the earth."
"Mrs. Wickam was a meek woman...who was always ready to pity herself, or to be pitied, or to pity anybody else..."
"What if they were wolves instead of lambs? They'd eat her all the sooner if she was meek to them. Fight or be eaten."

Etymology

From Middle English meek, meke, meoc, probably a borrowing from Old Norse mjúkr (“soft; meek”), from Proto-Germanic *meukaz, *mūkaz (“soft; supple”), from Proto-Indo-European *mewg-, *mewk- (“slick, slippery; to slip”); compare Old English smēag (“subtle, stealthy, etc.”) and smūgan. Cognate with Swedish and Norwegian Nynorsk mjuk (“soft”), Norwegian Bokmål myk (“soft”), and Danish myg (“supple”), Dutch muik (“soft, overripe”), dialectal German mauch (“dry and decayed, rotten”), Mauche (“malanders”). Compare as well Welsh mwyth (“soft, weak”), Latin ēmungō (“to blow one's nose”), Tocharian A muk- (“to let go, give up”), Lithuanian mùkti (“to slip away from”), Ancient Greek μύσσομαι (mússomai, “to blow the nose”), Sanskrit मु॒ञ्चति॑ (muñcáti, “to release, let loose”).

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: meek, mjúkr, *meukaz, *mewg-

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /mik/
British English: /miːk/

Usage

American usage

Inflected Forms

meeker (comparative) meekest (superlative) meeks (present, singular) meeking (participle, present) meeked (participle, past) meeked (past)

Derived Forms

meacock meeken meekful meekhead meekish meekless meekly meekness overmeek unmeek

Synonyms

abased demure verecund diffident humble humble-hearted low lowly meek mild modest poor

Rhymes With

week speak unique weak seek peak greek technique creek leak freak streak

Questions

How do you pronounce meek?: The recorded pronunciation is /mik/.
What does meek mean?: Humble, non-boastful, modest, meager, or self-effacing.
Where does meek come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce meek

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “meek”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/mik/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “meek”.
Repeat and practice — Say “meek” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.