not merely
idiom
—used to say that one thing is true and that another thing is also true
He was not merely a great baseball player, he was also a great person.
Examples of not merely in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The interview also reframes the list as a narrative project: one in which Black Midwestern life is not merely archived but curated, conjured, and interpreted.
—
The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 17 July 2025
Great powers in this context were not merely powerful states but the central actors defining the structure of global politics.
—Andrew Latham, The Conversation, 16 July 2025
By opening the site to third-party sellers and launching AWS, Amazon became not merely a merchant, but an infrastructure for global commerce and cloud computing.
—Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune, 16 July 2025
These were not merely personal sentiments but part of a greater belief system.
—Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker, 11 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for not merely
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 17 July 2025
Great powers in this context were not merely powerful states but the central actors defining the structure of global politics.
—Andrew Latham, The Conversation, 16 July 2025
By opening the site to third-party sellers and launching AWS, Amazon became not merely a merchant, but an infrastructure for global commerce and cloud computing.
—Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune, 16 July 2025
These were not merely personal sentiments but part of a greater belief system.
—Alexandra Schwartz, New Yorker, 11 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for not merely
Cite this Entry
“Not merely.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/not%20merely. Accessed 29 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share