M

(99 words)

mainstream

adjective

considered normal, and having or using ideas, beliefs, etc. that are accepted by most people:

maintain

verb [ T ]

to express firmly your belief that something is true:

make do

to manage to live without things that you would like to have or with things of a worse quality than you would like:

make sth/sb of sth/sb

to have an impression or an understanding about something:

make yourself understood

to communicate effectively:

malicious

adjective

intended to harm or upset other people:

margin

noun

DIFFERENCE

[ C ] the amount by which one thing is different from another:

PROFIT

[ C or U ] the profit made on a product or service:

OUTER PART

[ C ] the empty space to the side of the text on a page, sometimes separated from the rest of the page by a vertical line:

margin of error

noun [ C ]

an extra amount of something, such as time or money, that you allow because there might be a mistake in your calculations:

marginal

adjective

very small in amount or effect:

mark

noun

[ C ] an action that is understood to represent or show a characteristic of a person or thing or feeling:

leave your/its mark on sb/sth

to have an effect that changes someone or something, usually in a bad way:

make a/your mark (on sth)

to have an important effect on something:

market

noun [ C ]

the business or trade in a particular product, including financial products:

gap in the market

an opportunity for a product or service that does not already exist:

massacre

noun [ C ]

an act of killing a lot of people:

master

noun [ C ]

a person who is very skilled in a particular job or activity:

masterpiece/masterwork

noun [ C ]

a work of art such as a painting, film, or book that is made with great skill:

match

noun

[ S ] something that is similar to or combines well with something else:

be no match for sth/sb

to be less powerful or effective than someone or something else:

materialism

noun [ U ]

the belief that having money and possessions is the most important thing in life:

materialist

noun [ C ]

someone who believes that having money and possessions is the most important thing in life

materialistic

adjective

believing that having money and possessions is the most important thing in life

matter

noun

TYPE

[ U ] a substance or things of a particular type:

SMALL AMOUNT

[ S ] used in expressions describing how small an amount or period of time is:

be a matter of confidence, luck, waiting, etc.

If something is a matter of confidence, luck, waiting, etc. that is all you need for it to happen:

be no laughing matter

to be very serious and not a situation that people should joke about:

maximise/maximize

verb [ T ]

to make something as great in amount, size, or importance as possible:

mean well

to do what you think will be helpful, although by doing it you might cause problems without intending to:

mean

adjective

[ before noun ] specialized mathematics a mean number is an average number:

be no mean feat

informal

to be a great achievement:

by all means

used to give permission:

a means to an end

something that you do because it will help you to achieve something else:

means

noun

[ plural ] money, for example from an income, that allows you to buy things:

measure

JUDGE

verb

[ T ] to judge the quality, effect, importance, or value of something:

SIZE

[ C or U ] formal amount:

[ C ] an exact amount, especially of alcohol:

WAY OF JUDGING

[ C ] a way of judging something:

measurement

noun

[ C or U ] the act or process of measuring:

mechanical/mechanistic

adjective

disapproving without thinking about what you are doing, especially because you do something often:

medication

noun [ C or U ]

a medicine, or a set of medicines or drugs, used to improve a particular condition or illness:

mediocre

adjective disapproving

not very good:

mediocrity

noun

[ U ] the quality of being not very good:

medium

noun [ C ]

a method or way of expressing something:

melody

noun [ C or U ]

a tune, often forming part of a larger piece of music:

memorial

noun [ C ]

an object, often large and made of stone, that has been built to honour a famous person or event:

in memory of sb

as a way of remembering someone who has died:

merciful

adjective approving

someone who is merciful is willing to be kind to and forgive people who are in their power:

merciless

adjective disapproving

having or showing no mercy:

mercy

noun

[ U ] kindness that makes you forgive someone, usually someone that you have authority over:

be at the mercy of sb/sth

to be in a situation where someone or something has complete power over you:

the merest

used to emphasize the surprising or strong effect of a very small action or event:

merely

adverb

used to emphasize that something is not large, important, or effective when compared to something else:

merge

verb

[ I or T ] to combine or join together, or to cause things to do this:

merger

noun [ C ]

an occasion when two or more companies join together to make one larger company:

merit

verb [ T ] formal

If something merits a particular treatment, it deserves or is considered important enough to be treated in that way:

metaphor

noun [ C or U ]

an expression, often found in literature, that describes a person or object by referring to something that is considered to have similar characteristics to that person or object:

meticulous

adjective approving

very careful and with great attention to every detail:

mighty

adjective literary

very large, powerful, or important:

millennium

noun [ C ]

a period of 1,000 years, or the time when a period of 1,000 years ends:

have sth on your mind

to be worrying about something:

spring to mind

to come quickly into your mind:

in your mind’s eye

in your imagination or memory:

speak your mind

to say what you think about something very directly:

presence of mind

approving

the ability to make good decisions and to act quickly and calmly in a difficult situation or an emergency:

mind (you)

uk used when you want to make what you have just said sound less strong:

mind your own business

informal mainly humorous

used to tell someone in a rude way that you do not want them to ask about something private:

mingle

verb

[ I or T ] to mix or combine, or be mixed or combined:

miniature

used to describe something that is a very small copy of an object:

in miniature

smaller than usual:

minute

adjective

extremely small:

the minute (that)

at the exact or first moment when:

miserable

adjective

[ before noun ] used to emphasize the low quality of value of something:

mishap

noun [ C or U ]

bad luck, or an unlucky event or accident:

misinterpret

verb [ T ]

to form an understanding that is not correct of something that is said or done:

misinterpretation

noun [ C or U ]

the act of forming a wrong understanding of something that is said or done, or an example of a wrong understanding:

misplace

verb [ T ]

to lose something temporarily by forgetting where you have put it:

miss the boat

to lose an opportunity to do something by being slow to act:

missile

noun [ C ]

a flying weapon that has its own engine so that it can travel a long distance before exploding at the place that it has been aimed at:

mission

noun

[ C ] an important job, especially a military one, that someone is sent somewhere to do:

be misunderstood

If someone is misunderstood, other people do not understand that they have good qualities:

moan

verb [ I or T ]

SOUND

to make a long, low sound of pain, suffering, or another strong emotion:

COMPLAIN

informal disapproving to make a complaint in an unhappy voice, usually about something that does not seem important to other people:

model

noun [ C ]

something that a copy can be based on because it is an extremely good example of its type:

moderate

verb [ I or T ]

to (cause to) become less in size, strength, or force; to reduce something:

moderately

adverb

in a way that is neither small nor large in size, amount, degree, or strength:

on the spur of the moment

informal

used to say that a decision, action, etc. is sudden and done without any planning:

momentum

noun [ U ]

the force that keeps an object moving or keeps an event developing after it has started:

monetary

adjective

finance & economics relating to the money in a country:

monopoly

noun [ C or S ]

(an organization or group that has) complete control of something, especially an area of business, so that others have no share:

monster

noun [ C ]

a cruel person:

morale

noun [ U ]

the amount of confidence felt by a person or group of people, especially when in a dangerous or difficult situation:

mortality

noun [ U ] formal

the number of deaths within a particular society and within a particular period of time:

motion

noun

MOVEMENT

[ C or U ] the act or process of moving, or a particular action or movement:

SUGGESTION

[ C ] a formal suggestion made, discussed, and voted on at a meeting:

go through the motions

informal disapproving

to do something without thinking it is very important or having much interest in it:

mount

verb

INCREASE

[ I ] to gradually increase, rise, or get bigger:

GET ON

[ I or T ] to get on a horse, bicycle, etc.. in order to ride:

ORGANIZE

[ T ] to organize and begin an activity or event:

FIX

[ T ] to fix something to a wall, in a frame, etc., so that it can be looked at or used:

mount up

to gradually increase in number or amount:

a mountain of sth

a large amount of something:

move

noun

[ S ] an act of moving:

get a move on

informal

to hurry:

muddle

noun [ S or U ]

an untidy or confused state:

muddle sb/sth up

mainly uk

to think that a person or thing is someone or something else because the two people or things are very similar:

muddle sth up

uk

to arrange things in the wrong order:

murmur

verb

[ I or T ] to speak or say something very quietly:

noun

[ C ] the sound of something being said very quietly:

musically

adverb