What does “meh” mean in English?

Zlatan vs Meh: The Perfect YouTube TV Match

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A2 English listening practice · American English · Picked for people who know a little

💡 Did you know?
meh
Informal word for "not interesting"
an informal sound for “average” or “I don’t care” — said out loud, not just typed

This ad defines the word itself: “Meh means average.” Meh is an informal way to say something is boring, ordinary, or not worth getting excited about. You can say it about a thing (“The movie was meh”) or as a whole answer by itself: someone asks how your day was, and you just say, “Meh.” It’s a shrug turned into a sound.

Its origin is uncertain. A Yiddish connection has been proposed, and a 1928 Yiddish-English dictionary lists a similar word for “so-so.” The Simpsons helped make it popular in the 1990s and 2000s, and Collins added it to its dictionary in 2008. It can be an interjection (“Meh.”) or an adjective (“a pretty meh restaurant”). Either way, it means the opposite of exciting.

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this A2 English listening practice video?

83.9%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common English words
Most of the words in this video are common English words.

How common in written English

82.3%
Top 1,000
83.9%
Top 2,000
91.9%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken English

92.6%
Top 1,000
94.4%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Words for talking
This video uses words people often say in English.

Harder words in this video

These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.

zlatan
5×
Not in top 5,000
Zlatan Ibrahimović
ponytail
1×
Not in top 5,000
hair tied back in a bunch at the back of the head
meh
5×
Not in top 5,000
(slang) expressing indifference or lack of interest
soccer
1×
Top 5,000People say this a lot
a game played with a round ball using feet

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-US 2012 (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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