In the case of passports, they will merely be designed to a vague common standard.

ECONOMIST: High-tech passports are not working

Utopias (incidentally the coined word Utopia doesn't mean "a good place, " it means merely "a non- existent place") have been common in the literature of the past three or four hundred years, but the "favourable" ones are invariably unappetising, and usually lacking in vitality as well.

NPR: Excerpt: 'All Art Is Propaganda'

Professionalization of a teaching profession that merely focuses on getting better PISA test scores or more efficient teaching of a common core curriculum will do no better than what we have now, and probably worse.

FORBES: A Nation Still At Risk: How We Can Fix Our Schools

Has he merely delayed a move long backed by many Democrats as plain common sense so he can deploy it to maximum effect, months away from an election?

BBC: Immigration makes election bow

Material wealth may be the common thread, but as Richard finds out there is much more to wealth than merely sporting a fat wallet.

CNN: The Quest for wealth

It is perilously easy for a historian to see chasms where there are merely streams, easily leaped over and running to the same common ocean.

NEWYORKER: Slaughterhouse