The phrase "a mere title" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to describe something for which a person has a title or a formal responsibility, but which does not come with any real authority or additional privileges. For example, "She was given a mere title and no additional resources to help her fulfill her role."
But the problem cannot be resolved by such a choice, if only, first of all, because extramusical referents can vary in complexity from a mere descriptive title to the convolutions of the Wagnerian leitmotif, in which a particular musical phrase is consistently associated with a particular person, place, or thing.
Many reviewers said the mere title demonstrated the crudeness and originality of South Park, then still a relatively new show.
From the mere title of the new Star Wars juggernaut, "The Attack of the Clones," to "Technolust," the English actress Tilda Swinton's new movie about a scientist and a trio of bad-girl clones, the inspiration is clear.
Scythian Empire by Andrew Bird earns a place on the strength of "Routed by Sarmatians, thwarted by the Thracians"; while the mere title of Harry "The Hipster" Gibson's daring 1947 composition Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs Murphy's Ovaltine gets him the nod.
"The mere title shows what kind of propaganda it is," he said.
The mere title of that movie conjures in people who can't even point to Greece on the world map the ability to hear the sound of the Syrtaki dance, building up slowly but surely, and all the way to its giddy, kicking crescendo.
The next most prolific publisher of romance fiction, Kensington, sent a mere 219 titles to market.
Ron Jeremy says he has appeared in 1,600 pornographic films (although the Internet Movie Database lists a mere 665 titles), which is an impressive record for a stout little man whose nickname, the Hedgehog, is more than justified by his appearance.
As implied by their mere titles, a battle of bygone strangeness will be joined this month when "Balthus: Cats and Girls — Paintings and Provocations" opens at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sept. 25, and "Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938" is unveiled at the Museum of Modern Art on Sept. 28.
