mare
1 Americannoun
noun
noun
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maria
plural
noun
noun
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(capital when part of a name) any of a large number of huge dry plains on the surface of the moon, visible as dark markings and once thought to be seas: Mare Imbrium ( Sea of Showers )
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a similar area on the surface of Mars, such as Mare Sirenum
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maria
plural
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Any of the large, low-lying dark areas on the Moon or on Mars or other inner planets. The lunar maria are believed to consist of volcanic basalts, and many are believed to be basins formed initially by large impacts with meteoroids and later filled with lava flows.
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Compare terra
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mare1
First recorded before 900; Middle English, mere, mare, maire “horse for riding; beast of burden,” Old English mere, myre “mare”; cognate with Old Frisian merie, Dutch merrie, German Mähre, Old Norse merr; the feminine equivalents to Old English mearh, Old High German marah, march, Old Norse marr, Irish marc, “horse, steed”; see also marshal
Origin of mare2
First recorded before 900; Middle English mare “night goblin; incubus,” Old English mære, mare, mere “nightmare; monster that oppresses people in their sleep”; cognate with German Mahre, Old Norse mara; see nightmare
Origin of mare3
First recorded in 1760–70; from Latin: literally, “sea”
Explanation
A mare is an adult female horse. If your new horse is a filly, a female baby horse, she'll grow up to be a mare. Horse experts have many words to distinguish the age and sex of their animals, from foal, for any newborn horse, to stallion, a full grown male, to colt, a young male horse. Mares are known for being more easy-going than stallions, and because they're equally fast and powerful, they're as likely as males to be used for racing. Another meaning of mare ("sea" in Latin) is "dark areas of the moon," once believed to be actual oceans.
Vocabulary lists containing mare
Horsin' Around
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Space Science (Astronomy) - Introductory
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The Moon – Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Those horses, clones of the Polo Hall of Fame mare Polo Pureza, have an edit in a gene that regulates muscle development.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
In 2010, a clone of his champion mare Cuartetera sold at auction for $800,000, an eye-popping sum for a polo pony at the time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
Another class of landforms, small mare ridges, has also been identified.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 18, 2026
Mr Cameron added that the mare of the first animal they lost "went back on her own to the area she was last with her foal".
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2025
It was agreed that the white mare would carry the weapons taken from Spiral Castle—except the sword Dyrnwyn, of which Eilonwy had appointed herself guardian.
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
The close-up image of the Moon's surface includes dark areas known as maria and bright areas known as the highlands.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
For the first time, scientists show that these ridges are relatively young and spread widely across the lunar maria, the broad, dark plains visible from Earth.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 18, 2026
Because SMRs form through the same type of faulting, moonquakes may also occur across the lunar maria wherever these ridges exist.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 18, 2026
It has a thicker crust, more craters and fewer maria, or plains where lava once flowed.
From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2024
It cast a bluish eerie glow by which we could see large craters and the darker flat areas known as maria, or seas.
From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
