they are meant to vs they are intended to

Both phrases, 'they are meant to' and 'they are intended to', are correct and commonly used in English. They are interchangeable and can be used to express the purpose or design of something.

Last updated: March 30, 2024 • 1174 views

they are meant to

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to express the purpose or design of something.

This phrase is used to indicate the intended purpose or function of something.

Examples:

These instructions are meant to help you assemble the furniture.
The rules are meant to be followed by all employees.

Show examples from the web [+]

They are meant to give guidance on how to achieve good governance, due respect for precaution, as well as wide dissemination and good monitoring of the Code of Conduct.
They are meant to stimulate the implementation in the Member States on a high and harmonised level of data protection beyond what is strictly needed to fulfil the obligations of the Directive.
Things will be as they are meant to be.
How they are meant to achieve this remains unclear.
People die when they are meant to die.
As I stated in my initial remarks, post-shipment controls are essential to ensuring that arms go where they are meant to go and do not fall into the wrong hands.
Tax treaties and the OECD lists of non-cooperative jurisdictions, to reproduce the terms officially in use, are unsatisfactory and even represent part of the problem that they are meant to be solving.
I think it is not enough now that regulators simply tick boxes to establish whether or not the industry that they are meant to be guarding and protecting on behalf of the consumer is doing the right thing.
evaluation reports shall be made available well before the adoption of proposals they are meant to influence;
Therefore, when it comes to these reports, I agree with my colleague Carlos Coelho, in that they are meant to enhance the evaluation mechanism within the Schengen Area project; a project which is of great importance, and which is built upon mutual trust.
They are meant to be fully involved.
They are meant to hold the weight.
They are meant to kill a narf when she is out of the water.
They are meant to address specific issues or specific needs raised by the beneficiary, for instance in the margins of a regional workshop or during regular contacts with Union experts and with the implementing agency.
As they are meant to do.
In other words, the strategic guidelines appear more like collateral implementing instructions than the blueprint they are meant to be.
Presumably, they are meant to work through the Israeli public, feeling the painful bite of loss of exports and jobs, pressurising the Sharon Government to stop its crazy policies.
They behave no better... and are merely gawked at by those they are meant to serve.
The simplest and most objective way to evaluate the efficacy of the technical measures is to look at the status of the stocks which they are meant to conserve.
They are meant to be used on my kind.

Alternatives:

they are intended to
they are designed to
they are supposed to
they are expected to
they are meant for

they are intended to