mare
mare Lexical Profile
mare Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An adult female horse or other equine mammal (family Equidae), such as a donkey, zebra, or mule.
"The chestnut mare grazed peacefully in the pasture beside her newborn foal."
Any of the large, dark, flat basaltic plains on the surface of the Moon (or Mars), formed by ancient volcanic eruptions and originally mistaken for seas by early astronomers (plural: maria or mares).
"Through a backyard telescope, the dark expanse of a lunar mare contrasts sharply with the bright, heavily cratered highlands."
In Germanic and Slavic folklore, a malicious nocturnal spirit or goblin believed to sit on a sleeper's chest, causing feelings of suffocation and bad dreams (surviving in modern English in the compound 'nightmare').
"In medieval folklore, a sleeper waking with chest pressure believed they had been visited by a mare during the night."
Word Nuance & Usage
When referring to a female horse, 'mare' is pronounced /mɛər/ (rhyming with 'care') and has the regular plural 'mares'. In astronomy, 'mare' (a dark basaltic plain on the Moon) is borrowed directly from Latin for 'sea', is often pronounced /ˈmɑːreɪ/, and takes the plural 'maria'.
• Rhymes for mare
Word Origin & Etymology
In the sense of a female horse, from Old English 'mere', feminine of 'mearh' (horse), of Germanic origin. In the astronomical sense, borrowed from Latin 'mare' (sea), applied by early astronomers who mistook the dark lunar plains for bodies of water.