DictionaryAI

me

SayMEE/mi/UK/miː/

Noun pluralmes

8 meanings of me

Practice

  1. 1
    as objectpronoun
    The form of I used as the object of a verb or preposition.

    The dog followed me home.

    They sent me the wrong parcel.

    UsageThe object form, also in pairs: she invited Sam and me (not incorrect: Sam and I).

    Note

    One form covers both kinds of object because of an old merger. Old English mē was originally the dative, the 'to me' case, and it later took over the accusative job as well, pushing out the separate form mec. So 'hear me' and 'give me this' share one word where Old English once kept two.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Modern me combines historically distinct dative and accusative functions because dative mē supplanted accusative mec. en.wiktionary.org
    • Old English once distinguished the two object forms, although the merger already appears in most surviving Old English texts. en.wikipedia.org
  2. 2
    pronoun
    The first-person singular pronoun used on its own, after be, or in apposition, where the object form is the normal choice.

    "Who wants ice cream?" "Me!"

    Me, I prefer the train.

    Note

    In English, the object form is the default whenever the pronoun stands without a verb. The same default holds when the pronoun is set out in front for emphasis, as in 'Me, I prefer the train.'

  3. 3
    personalitynouncountable
    The speaker's own self or personality.

    After the move, I felt like a different me.

    After the divorce, I had to figure out who the real me was.

    UsageMost often with an article or adjective: the real me, a different me.

    Similarself, person, persona

    Note

    Turned into a noun, the pronoun can be counted. The plural mes is where writers reach for it most. George MacDonald's At the Back of the North Wind has 'I can't be two mes', and the English translation of Bei Dao's novella Waves asks 'Could there be two mes?' The question behind the noun is usually which self is the real one, hence 'the real me'. The noun I can do similar work.

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • George MacDonald wrote At the Back of the North Wind, which contains 'I can't be two mes'; the speaker is North Wind. gutenberg.org
    • The English translation of Bei Dao's Waves contains the exact question 'Could there be two mes?' en.wiktionary.org
    • An English translation appeared in Renditions nos. 19 & 20 in 1983, before the 1985 book collection. rct.cuhk.edu.hk

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–5, 7

This comes from Middle English me, from Old English mē (originally dative but later also accusative, replacing the accusative mec), from Proto-West Germanic *miʀ, from Proto-Germanic *miz, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁me-. It is cognate with Dutch me, German mir, Latin mē, Ancient Greek μέ (mé), and Sanskrit मा (mā).

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

  • English me comes from Middle English me, from Old English mē. en.wiktionary.org
  • Old English mē was originally dative and later also accusative, replacing mec. en.wiktionary.org
  • The ancestral sequence is Proto-West Germanic *miʀ, Proto-Germanic *miz, and Proto-Indo-European *h₁me-. en.wiktionary.org
  • English me is cognate with Dutch me, German mir, Latin mē, Ancient Greek μέ (mé), and Sanskrit मा (mā). en.wiktionary.org
Meaning 6

A spelling of my as it sounds in some dialects: Middle English my was said with the vowel of see, and while the Great Vowel Shift moved most speech to the modern sound, some dialects kept or brought back the older one.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts