um

From u- (“micro-, 10^-6”) +‎ m (“metre”).

um

2. (international standards) alternative form of μm

This variant is often considered less desirable than μm but is nonetheless widely used by writers who find the ease of its typing on the keyboard to be more important than the nicety of its deprecation; they rely on the principle that their target readers (fellow scientists or clinicians) know enough to find its meaning obvious in context. Upon formal publication, a manuscript's use of this variant will usually be converted to the standard symbol. The same theme applies to ul, ug, and us.

Onomatopoeic.

• IPA^(key): /ʌm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌm (when stressed, or as a verb)

Used in rhotic dialects. Compare to British English erm.

um

1. Expression of hesitation, uncertainty or space filler in conversation.

   Synonyms: er, hmm, uh, eh

   Um, I don’t know.

   Let’s see... um... how about this?

   • 2002, “Newsweek”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 140, page lxxx:

     It's a great test of the claims of open-source gurus, who say that a self-motivated community can outcode any team working for a single employer—like, um, Microsoft.

   • 2007 August 24, William Grimes, “Uh, Lead My Rips: No More Bloopers”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 4 January 2013:

     As the years go by, speech reverts to childhood levels of disfluency, with more pauses, more errors, more repeated words, but even the peak years are not great: up to 8 percent of the average person’s word output consists of meaningless fillers and placeholders like um, uh and er.

   • 2024 June 24, “Baldwin Judge on FIRE!”, in Law of Self Defense‎^[2], page 2:

     Um And I don't know um what to say to the court other than, I don't know how we could get through 1/5 of that.

2. (chiefly US) Dated spelling of mmm.
   • 1963, Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle, Dell Publishing Co., Inc., page 65:

     "About the same, wherever you go," he agreed.
     "Um," I said.

3. An expression to forcefully call attention to something wrong.

   Um, excuse me!

4. (childish) An expression of shocked disapproval used by a child who witnesses forbidden behavior.
   • 2011, Kimberly Willis Holt, Piper Reed: Clubhouse Queen, page 83:

     While I was in her room, Sam walked by and said, “Um, I'm telling!”
     “You're telling what?” I asked.
     “You're reading Tori's journal,” she said.

   • 2021, Sarah Strangeways, The Gingerbread House, page 13:

     Mair used to look after Laura. If anyone threatened to tease her, Mair would stand up straight, point her finger at the enemy and shout, 'Um! I'm telling on you!'

um (third-person singular simple present ums, present participle umming, simple past and past participle ummed)

1. (intransitive) To make the um sound to express uncertainty or hesitancy.
   • 2007, Michael Erard, Um... Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean, page 136:

     Meanwhile, in the popular mind umming was simply a bad habit, akin to spitting or picking one’s nose.

um (plural ums)

1. An occurrence of the interjection "um".
   • 2007 August 24, William Grimes, “Uh, Lead My Rips: No More Bloopers”, in The New York Times‎^[3], archived from the original on 4 January 2013:

     Although Shakespeare refers to “hums and ha’s,” sifting through etiquette manuals and public-speaking guides turns up scant evidence of a prohibition against ums, ers and uhs, which are profuse in the first recording of Thomas Edison’s voice, in 1888. Mr. Erard, rather ingeniously, traces the prohibition on um and other speech flaws to the advent of radio in the early 1920s.

• ahm, ehm, em, erm, hum, uhm, umm

Variant form of -um.

um

1. (dated, sometimes humorous, often offensive) An undifferentiated determiner or article; a miscellaneous linking word, or filler with nonspecific meaning; representation of broken English stereotypically or comically attributed to Native Americans.

   Me be Injun. Him um Growling Bear. Him um heap big chief.

   • 1871, “Grand camp meeting on Bear River”, in The Keepapitchinin‎^[4], volume III, page 3:

     “me heap brave—me talk to um white man so […] me good injun, like um white man, mebbe so, ugh!”

• -mu-, MU, Mu, mu

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *umъ

• IPA^(key): [ˈum]
• Hyphenation: um
• Rhymes: -um

um m inan

1. skill, art

• schopnost
• dovednost
• umění

• “um”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “um”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “um”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

Onomatopoeic.

um

1. um (expressing hesitation)

   Synonyms: ehm, eh, uh

um

1. house

• C. L. Voorhoeve, The Makian Languages and Their Neighbours (1982)

From Old Norse um, from Proto-Germanic *umbi. Cognate with Swedish om.

um

1. if

um

1. around
2. about (a subject)

From Old Norse umb, from Proto-Germanic *umbi, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi (“round about, around”).

• IPA^(key): /ʊmː/

um

1. around [with accusative]
2. about [with accusative]
3. during [with accusative]
4. through [with accusative]
5. over [with accusative]

um

1. whether, if

Galician numbers ^(edit)

		10
	[a], [b] ←  0	1	2  → [a], [b], [c]	10  →
Cardinal (reintegrationist / masculine): um     Cardinal (standard / masculine): un     Cardinal (standard / feminine): unha     Cardinal (reintegrationist / feminine): umha, uma     Ordinal: primeiro     Ordinal abbreviation: 1º
Galician Wikipedia article on 1

• IPA^(key): /ˈuŋ/ [ˈuŋ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uŋ
• Hyphenation: um

um m (feminine umha or uma, reintegrationist norm)

1. one

The numeral um and its feminine forms umha and uma can form contractions with the prepositions com (“with”), de (“of, from”), and em (“in”).

• cum, cumha, cuma
• dum, dumha, duma
• num, numha, numa

• “um” in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (2014).

• umb, ümb, üm (obsolete)

From Middle High German umbe, ümbe, from Old High German umbi, from Proto-West Germanic *umbi.

Central German dialects show regular umlaut; the standard form is from Upper German, where umlaut of -u- was blocked before labial geminates and clusters. Cognate with Luxembourgish ëm, Dutch om.

• IPA^(key): /ʊm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Austria):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊm

um [with accusative]

1. about

   Es geht um den Kuchen. ― It's about the pie.

2. around

   Um die Ecke ― around the corner

3. at, by (when relating to time)

   Um acht Uhr reisen wir ab ― At eight o’clock we depart

4. by (percentage difference)

   Die Verkaufsmengen gingen um 6% zurück. ― Sales in volume has decreased by 6%.

5. (Austria) for (amount of money)

   Um einen Euro bekommt man heute nicht besonders viel. ― You can't buy much for one euro these days.

   Heute im Sonderangebot um nur 99 Euro. ― Special offer today for only 99 euros.

• (um + das) ums

um (introduces a zu-clause)

1. in order to, so as to

   Wir sind gekommen, um zu helfen.

   We’ve come (in order) to help.

um (indeclinable, predicative only)

1. (predicative, not attributive) up, in the sense of finished

   Werden dich in kurzem binden/ Erdgeist, deine Zeit ist um

   We will shortly bind you/ Erdgeist, your time is up

   (Friedrich von Hardenberg, Novalis)

um

1. around, about
2. turned over, changed, from one state to another

• IPA^(key): /əm/, /ʌm/

um

1. (third-person singular object-oblique) him, her, it

• Gullah does not distinguish its third-person pronouns between any genders. Therefore, him, her, and it are all communicated through

• Virginia Mixson Geraty, Gulluh fuh oonuh: Gullah for You (1997)
• Lorenzo Dow Turner, Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect (1969)
•  David B. Frank. Gullah Grammar Sketch

Derived from English ’em.

um

1. them (those ones)
   • 2000, “Matthew 8”, in Joseph Grimes, transl., Da Jesus Book: Hawaii Pidgin New Testament‎^[5], Wycliffe Bible Translators, →ISBN, page 110:

     He tell um, “Go.” So dey wen let go da guys, an go take ova da pigs. An you know wat? All da pigs wen run down one steep hill an fall ova da cliff inside da lake, an drown inside da water.

     And he said unto them, Go. And they came out, and went into the swine: and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep into the sea, and perished in the waters.

• IPA^(key): /um/

um (+ accusative)

1. around

   Ich hon mich en Duch um de Kopp gebunn.

   I've tied a towel around my head.

2. at, by (when relating to time)

   Um acht Uher.

   At eight o'clock.

• (um + das) ums

um

1. around, about

   Das kost um zweu hunnerd Rëal.

   This costs around two hundred reais.

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary

• umb

Inherited from Old Norse um, inherited from Proto-Germanic *umbi (“around, about”).

um

1. used in set phrases

   Það er um að gera að sofa vel.

   The important thing to do is to sleep well.

   Hvað er um að vera?

   What's going on?

   Eins og um var talað.

   As was agreed.

• um að gera
• vera um og ó

um [with accusative]

1. about, concerning

   Um hvað ertu að tala?

   What are you talking about?

   Spurning um líf og dauða.

   A question of life and death.

2. through, around, across

   Áin rennur um dalinn.

   The river runs through the valley.

   Að fara út um gluggann.

   To go out through the window.

   Vestur um haf.

   West across the sea.

3. throughout, over, around

   Við förum um alla sveitina.

   We'll go throughout the district.

   Hann var breiður um herðar.

   He was broad across the shoulders.

   Hún hafði klút um hálsinn.

   She had a scarf around her neck.

4. during, for, in, at

   Hvenær gerðist þetta? - Þetta gerðist um sumarið.

   When did this happen? - It happened during the summer.

   Ég fór um nóttina.

   I went during the night.

5. approximately, about, around

   Pokinn er um fjögur kíló.

   The bag is around four kilos.

• Often used with phrases such as "brjóta heilann um".

  Ég er búinn að brjóta heilann um þetta alla nótt!

  I've been racking my brain about this all night!

From Portuguese um (“a”), from Old Galician-Portuguese ũu, from Latin ūnus, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos.

um

1. a (the indefinite article)
   • 1883, Hugo Schuchardt, Kreolische Studien, volume 3:

     Um homm tinh doiz filh:

     A man had two sons:

• im

From Old Irish imb, from Proto-Celtic *ambi, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂m̥bʰi (“round about, around”).

• IPA^(key): /ʊmˠ/^[1]

um (plus dative, triggers lenition, except of b, m, and p)

1. about
2. at
3. because of, on account of

• uime

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “um”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

Probably cognate to U ʔóm.

um

1. water

• H. Roberts, A Grammar of the Khasi Language

um

1. (onomatopoeia) mmm (emotional expression of deliciousness)
   • 2006, Matilda Koén-Sarano, Por el plazer de kontar‎^[6], Nur Afakot, page 145:

     Le demandí kon la bava a la boka: "Um!… I de kualo es?"
     "De pera", me disho Viktoria.
     Yo al gostí… Estava maraviyoza.

     I asked her mouthwateringly: ‘Mmm…! What is this?’
     ‘Pear’, Viktoria told me. To me, the taste was… wonderful.

• “um”, in Trezoro de la Lengua Djudeoespanyola [Treasure of the Judeo-Spanish Language] (in Ladino, Hebrew, and English), Instituto Maale Adumim

• IPA^(key): /um/

u'm

1. first/third-person singular present indicative of vȱlda

um

1. stone

• Greg Pearson, René van den Berg, Lote Grammar Sketch (2008)

um

1. contraction of op + dem; on the, at the, to the
2. contraction of un + dem

From Middle High German umbe, ümbe, from Old High German umbi, from Proto-West Germanic *umbi, from Proto-Germanic *umbi (“around, about”). Cognate with German um.

um (+ accusative)

1. about, around
2. (time) at

   Um biavle ist s? ― What time is it? (literally, “How many is it at?”)

• “um” in Cimbrian, Ladin, Mòcheno: Getting to know 3 peoples. 2015. Servizio minoranze linguistiche locali della Provincia autonoma di Trento, Trento, Italy.

From Old Norse um.

• IPA^(key): /ʊmː/, [ʊmː], [umː], [ʊ̟mː], [ʉmː]

um

1. (pre-1938 or dialectal) alternative form of om

• “um” in Ivar Aasen (1873) Norsk Ordbog med dansk Forklaring

• umb — older form

From Proto-Germanic *umbi (“around, about”). Cognate with Old English ymbe, Old Frisian umbe, ombe, Old Saxon umbi, Old High German umbi.

um

1. about, concerning [with accusative]
2. round, past, beyond [with accusative]
3. over, across, along [with accusative]
4. during, at a point in time [with accusative]
5. because of, for [with accusative]

um

1. (Poetic Edda) indicates that the verbal action is completed, compare English “through” as in “read through”. For semantic development, compare adjectival usage of German um.
   • Vǫluspá, verse 2, lines 1-2, in 1860, T. Möbius, Edda Sæmundar hins fróða: mit einem Anhang zum Theil bisher ungedruckter Gedichte. Leipzig, page 1:

     Ek man jǫtna / ár um borna, […]

     I remember giants / born long ago, […]

• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “um”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press; also available at the Internet Archive
• J. Fritzner (1867) “um”, in Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog (in Danish), Kristiania: Feilberg & Landmark

Compare German um, Dutch om, Old English ymb.

um

1. around

From Proto-Khasian *ʔum (“tree”). Cognate with Khasi um.

• IPA^(key): /ʔum/

um

1. water

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *ũmъ.

• IPA^(key): /ˈum/
• Rhymes: -um
• Syllabification: um
• Homophone: -um

um m inan

1. (obsolete) mind, reason

   Synonyms: rozsądek, rozum, umysł

• um in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese numbers ^(edit)

		10
	←  0	1	2  →	10  →
Cardinal: um     Ordinal: primeiro     Ordinal abbreviation: 1.º, 1º     Multiplier: único, singular     Fractional: inteiro
Portuguese Wikipedia article on 1

• hum (obsolete)

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese ũu (“one; a”), from Latin ūnum (“one”), from Old Latin oinos, from Proto-Italic *oinos, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos (“one”). Doublet of uno.

• (São Miguel, Azores) IPA^(key): (numeral) /ˈœ̃/, (article) /œ̃/

• Audio (Brazil):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ũ
• Hyphenation: um

um m (feminine uma)

2. one

   Uma xícara de café ― One cup of coffee

For quotations using this term, see Citations:um.

• Indo-Portuguese: um
• Kabuverdianu: un

um (feminine uma, masculine plural uns, feminine plural umas)

2. (indefinite) a, an

   Um carro, uma casa. ― A car, a house.

   • 2005, J. K. Rowling, translated by Lia Wyler, Harry Potter e o Enigma do Príncipe [Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince] (Harry Potter; 6), Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, →ISBN, page 186:

     Tenho um recado para você.

     I have a message for you.

   • 2005, J. K. Rowling, translated by Lia Wyler, Harry Potter e o Enigma do Príncipe [Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince] (Harry Potter; 6), Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, →ISBN, page 361:

     […] disse o professor com um sorrisinho […]

     […] the teacher said with a little smile […]

   2. (in the plural) some; a few (a small number of)

      Uns carros, umas casas. ― A few cars, a few houses.

      Synonym: alguns

   4. (with uncountable nouns) a bit of

      Synonym: um pouco de

   6. (usually in the feminine, pronounced slowly, emphatically and with a high intonation) indicates that what follows is exceptional; quite a; quite the

      Ontem de noite caiu uma chuva.

      We had quite a rain last night.

      Estamos comendo um churrasco.

      We are having the barbecue.

      Synonym: aquele

For quotations using this term, see Citations:um.

um m (plural uns)

2. the figure or digit "1": one

   O um parece o sete sem gravata no pescoço. ― The one looks like the seven with no tie at its neck.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:um.

um m or f (plural uns)

2. a person; one; someone

   Chegou-me um e disse: "Olá!" ― One came to me and said: "Hello!"

4. element(s) of a previously mentioned class: one; some (in the plural)

   Comprei uns e me decepcionei. ― I bought some and got disappointed.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:um.

From Latin homō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰmṓ (“earthling”).

um m (plural umens)

1. man

   Coordinate term: dunna

2. husband

   Synonym: (Sutsilvan) cunsort

   Coordinate term: dunna

• IPA^(key): /um/

um

1. house

• Donald A. Burquest, Wyn D. Laidig, Phonological Studies in Four Languages of Maluku (1992)

• IPA^(key): /ʌm/, /əm/

um

1. (Southern Scots, personal) him

• hei

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *umъ.

• IPA^(key): /ûːm/

ȗm m inan (Cyrillic spelling у̑м)

1. mind
2. intellect
3. wit

• “um”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *umъ.

• IPA^(key): [um]

um m inan

1. mind
2. intellect
3. wit

• rozum m
• hlava f
• zmysel m

• umček
• umný
• umový

• “um”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025