mare

[ mair ]

See synonyms for mare on Thesaurus.com

noun

a fully mature female horse or other equine animal.

Origin of mare

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

Words that may be confused with mare

mare , mayor

Other definitions for mare (2 of 4)

mare²

[ mair ]

nounObsolete.

nightmare (def. 3).

Origin of mare

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

Other definitions for mare (3 of 4)

mare³

[ mahr-ey, mair-ee ]

noun,plural ma·ri·a

[mahr-ee-uh, mair-]. /ˈmɑr i ə, ˈmɛər-/. Astronomy.

any of the several large, dark plains on the moon and Mars: Galileo believed that the lunar features were seas when he first saw them through a telescope.

Origin of mare

First recorded in 1760–70; from Latin: literally, “sea”

Other definitions for Mar.E. (4 of 4)

Mar.E.

abbreviation

Marine Engineer.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use mare in a sentence

This is a bad plan, as young and immature mares breed early on the veldt, and throw weedy stock.
Campaign Pictures of the War in South Africa (1899-1900) | A. G. Hales
From a corral back of the stables came a drove of horses, mares, colts, and yearlings.
David Lannarck, Midget | George S. Harney
The horses were almost always stallions (mares are very rarely mentioned), and were never raced under five years of age.
The Private Life of the Romans | Harold Whetstone Johnston
We rode in a gig, and our animal was a steady-going mare, and behaved as such; but all had not gigs or steady-going mares.
East Anglia | J. Ewing Ritchie
There were in the royal stud more than thirty thousand brood mares and three hundred stallions.
The Geography of Strabo, Volume III (of 3) | Strabo

British Dictionary definitions for mare (1 of 2)

mare¹

/ (mɛə) /

noun

the adult female of a horse or zebra

Origin of mare

C12: from Old English, of Germanic origin; related to Old High German mariha, Old Norse merr mare

British Dictionary definitions for mare (2 of 2)

mare²

/ (ˈmɑːreɪ, -rɪ) /

nounplural maria (ˈmɑːrɪə)

(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)
a similar area on the surface of Mars, such as Mare Sirenum

Origin of mare

from Latin: sea

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for mare

mare

[ mä′rā ]

Plural maria (mä′rē-ə)

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. Compare terra.

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