an instrumentality for accomplishing some end
plural of mean
"The average test scores for both classes were surprisingly similar, so the means did not differ much."
In plain English: Means refers to the money or resources you have available to do something.
"The car is my main means of transportation to work."
Usage: As a noun, means refers to the money or resources available to someone, rather than being the plural form of mean. Use this word when discussing how people support themselves financially, such as in the phrase "by all means."
Third-person singular simple present indicative form of mean
"She means to finish the project by Friday, but she is already running behind schedule."
In plain English: To mean something is to intend or plan to do it.
"She means to finish her report before the meeting starts."
Usage: Use "means" to indicate that someone or something has a specific purpose, value, or interpretation in the third person singular. For example, say "Success means hard work" rather than using it as a noun like "the means."
A surname.
"After years of searching, they finally found a distant relative named Means living in Ohio."
The word means comes from the noun mean, which originally referred to a method or course of action used to achieve a specific result. It entered English alongside related terms in French and German that share this same core meaning.