mild
pronunciation
How to pronounce mild in British English:
UK [maɪld]
How to pronounce mild in American English:
US [maɪld]
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- Adjective:
- moderate in type or degree or effect or force; far from extreme
- humble in spirit or manner; suggesting retiring mildness or even cowed submissiveness
- mild and pleasant
Word Origin
- mild
- mild: [OE] Mild goes back ultimately to Indo- European *meld-, *mold-, *mld-, which denoted ‘softness’ and also produced English melt and Latin mollis ‘soft’, source of English mollify and mollusc. From it was derived the Germanic adjective *milthjaz, whose modern descendant has shown remarkable formal stability: German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and English all share the word mild.=> melt, mollify, mollusc, smelt
- mild (adj.)
- Old English milde "gentle, merciful," from Proto-Germanic *milthjaz- (cognates: Old Norse mildr, Old Saxon mildi, Old Frisian milde, Middle Dutch milde, Dutch mild, Old High German milti, German milde "mild," Gothic mildiþa "kindness"), from PIE *meldh-, from root *mel- "soft," with derivatives referring to soft or softened materials (cognates: Greek malthon "weakling," myle "mill;" Latin molere "to grind;" Old Irish meldach "tender;" Sanskrit mrdh "to neglect," also "to be moist"). Originally of persons and powers; of the weather from c. 1400, of disease from 1744. Also in Old English as an adverb, "mercifully, graciously." Mild goes further than gentle in expressing softness of nature; it is chiefly a word of nature or character, while gentle is chiefly a word of action. [Century Dictionary]
Synonym
Example
- 1. Religious opposition to social change has been mild .
- 2. Even mild dehydration can cause your blood to thicken .
- 3. Most reported adverse effects were mild and transient .
- 4. Ophthalmologists have long recommended this baby wash to gently remove eye makeup ; it 's inexpensive and ultra mild on the eyes .
- 5. Beijing 's eerily mild winter has provoked anxious media coverage in the chinese capital .