Meat, meet or mete

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Grammarist

Meat, meet and mete are three words that are pronounced in the same way but are spelled differently and have different meanings, which makes them homophones. We will examine the different definitions of meat, meet and mete, where these words came from and some examples of their use in sentences.

Meat is the flesh of an animal, usually referring to the flesh of an animal that is eaten by human beings. Meat is sometimes used to mean the edible part of a nut. Meat is also used figuratively to mean the central, most important part of something. The word meat is derived from the Old English word mete, which means food item.

Meet means to come into physical proximity with someone or to arrange to come into physical proximity of someone, to gather with others. Meet is also used to mean to make an initial acquaintance with someone. Meet sometimes describes when two things touch or join together physically or when two people come to an agreement or understanding. Related words are meets, met, meeting. The word meet is derived from the Old English word metan which means to encounter or to find.

Mete means to measure out, especially to measure out punishment or justice. Related words are metes, meted, meting. The word mete is also derived from the Old English word metan from the sense of to allot.

Examples

For years, Mr. Chaturvedi said, the government had protected the lucrative, predominantly Muslim-owned buffalo meat business, making it difficult for him to enforce environmental codes. (The New York Times)

The real meat of the problem is not the high-profile murder cases where someone could potentially be “let off.” (Canadian Lawyer Magazine)

“Originally I made my Instagram to meet people in Melbourne,” says Ferguson, 23, who studied fine arts at Perth’s Curtin University, then moved to Melbourne in 2014. (The Canberra Times)

With dozens of city worker union contracts about to expire for the first time in a decade, Chicago should consider a host of changes that could save taxpayer money, streamline operations and make it easier to mete out discipline, a new report from the city’s top watchdog concludes. (The Chicago Tribune)