Meanings
- uncountableUsed attributively to designate a twelve-point scale measuring the intensity of an earthquake; (absolutely) the Mercalli scale.
The monster quake that hits the Pacific coast of Mexico […] measures a full nine on the Richter scale, which is to say: as bad as it gets. Also, XII on the Modified Mercalli, meaning complete destruction.
1999, Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, page 4711 more example
The observatory of Dunkirk registered in all eleven shocks, all of the fifth grade of Mercalli's scale, and there is no record extant of a similiar seismic disturbance in our island since the earthquake of 1534 […].
1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 329
Origin
From the name of Giuseppe Mercalli (1850–1914), Italian geologist, who devised the scale in 1897.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
Mercalli. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Mercalli
“Mercalli.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Mercalli. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Mercalli,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Mercalli.
Source: Mercalli on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.