merely

adv
/ˈmɪəli/UK/ˈmɪɹli/US

Etymology

From Middle English mereli, equivalent to mere + -ly.

  1. inherited from mereli

Definitions

  1. Without any other reason etc.

    Without any other reason etc.; only, just, and nothing more.

    • But let us not be unfair to the kibitzers. Not all players hate 'em. Some merely dislike 'em.
    • All these people, who have tried to set you against me out of envy and love of slander – and some too merely passing on what they have been told by others – all these are very difficult to deal with.
  2. Wholly, entirely.

    • It is not forgot, since the acute and distinct Arminius was perverted meerly by the perusing of a namelesse discourse writt'n at Delf, which at first he took in hand to confute.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at merely. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01merely02entirely03solely04exclusively05exclusion06item07picked08word09fact10real

A definitional loop anchored at merely. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at merely

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA