merry
/ˈmɛ.ɹi/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.83 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Jolly and full of high spirits; happy.
adj
noun
An English wild cherry.
name
A surname transferred from the nickname. Originally a nickname for a merry person.
name
A female given name from merry.
Example Sentences
- "We had a very merry Christmas."
- "I am neuer merry when I heare ſweet muſique."
- "I felt comforted by the song of the redbreast, and I thought I felt less lonely and deserted as long as I heard the merry notes of the thrush."
- "Everyone was merry at the party."
- "If I have the chance, I will make our worshipful Sheriff pay right well for that which he hath done to me. Maybe I may bring him some time into Sherwood Forest and have him to a right merry feast with us."
- "The play moved along at a merry pace."
Etymology
From Middle English myrie, merie, mery, from Old English myrġe, myriġe (“pleasing, agreeable; pleasant, sweet, delightful; melodious”), from Proto-West Germanic *murgī (“short, slow, leisurely”), from Proto-Germanic *murguz (“short, slow”), from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“short”). Cognate with Scots mery, mirry (“merry”), Middle Dutch mergelijc (“pleasant, agreeable, joyful”), Norwegian dialectal myrjel (“small object, figurine”), Latin brevis (“short, small, narrow, shallow”), Ancient Greek βραχύς (brakhús, “short”). Doublet of brief.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈmɛ.ɹi/
- British English: /ˈmɛ.ɹi/