DM

See also: .dm, D.M., Dm, d.m., and dm

Translingual

Symbol

DM

1. (international standards) ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code for Dominica.

   Synonym: DMA (alpha-3)

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

DM

Wikipedia

Noun

DM (countable and uncountable, plural DMs)

1. (computing, DWH) Initialism of dimensional modeling.
2. (logic) Initialism of De Morgan’s law.
   • 2004 August, J. L. Schellenberg, “The Atheist’s Free Will Offence”, in International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, volume 56, № 1, pages 11-12:

     Let ‘F’ stand for the state of affairs that consists in finite persons possessing and exercising free will. Let ‘p’ stand for ‘God exists’; ‘q’ for ‘F obtains’; ‘r’ for ‘F poses a serious risk of evil’; and ‘s’ for ‘There is no option available to God that counters F.’ With this in place, the argument may be formalized as follows:
     (1) [(p & q) & r] → s Premiss
     (2) ~s        Premiss
     (3) ~[(p & q) & r]   1, 2 MT
     (4) ~(p & q) v ~r    3 DM
     (5) r         Premiss
     (6) ~(p & q)      4, 5 DS
     (7) ~p v ~q      6 DM
     (3) follows from the conjunction of (1) and (2) by modus tollens; De Morgan’s law applied to (3) yields (4); (4) and (5) together lead to (6) by disjunctive syllogism; and another application of De Morgan’s law takes us from (6) to the final conclusion, according to which either God exists or there is free will (but not both).

3. (money) Initialism of Deutsche Mark.

   Synonym: (official banking code) DEM

4. (nutrition) Initialism of dry matter.
5. (pathology) Initialism of diabetes mellitus.
6. (pathology) Initialism of dermatomyositis.
7. (organic chemistry) adamsite, diphenylaminechlorarsine
8. (physics, astronomy) Abbreviation of dark matter.

   Hyponyms: CDM, HDM, FDM

9. (pharmacology) Abbreviation of dextromethorphan; also DXM.
10. (rail transport, in multiple unit formations) driving motor car
11. (roleplaying games) Initialism of dungeon master or dungeon mistress.

    Synonyms: GM, ST

    • 2004 March 22, Death Quaker, “[STATS] Postings for alt.fan.utena 1-Feb-2004 to 1-Mar-2004”, in alt.fan.utena‎ (Usenet), archived from the original on 22 November 2025:

      DQ: "DM" stands for "Dungeon Master"--or I guess in my case Dungeon Mistress. *blinks* _That's_ got all kindsa wrong connotations, doesn't it? #o_o#

13. (Internet) Initialism of direct message (type of message on social media platforms).

    Synonym: PM (“private message”)

    Coordinate terms: PM, IM

    • 2012, Scott Stratten, Alison Kramer, UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging:

      He later sent me a DM mentioning that he would send me what he wears because he does a lot of walking. This is where the relationships online can get a wee bit weird.

14. Initialism of duty manager.
15. (philosophy) Initialism of dialectical materialism.
16. (BDSM) Initialism of dungeon master, dungeon mistress, or dungeon monitor.
    • 1999, Patricia Payne, “The Master of D/stiny”, in Sex Tips from a Dominatrix, New York, N.Y.: ReganBooks, →ISBN, chapter 8 (D/sense and Sensibility), page 138:

      But the most important people at any gathering are those in charge of safety, referred to as Dungeon Master/Mistress (DM). […] DMs are willing to help instruct novices on the safe use of all equipment provided on the premises and also act as mediators if there are any scenes that have potential safety concerns.

    • 2001, Claudia Varrin, “SM Players, Their Scene, and Their Etiquette”, in Erotic Surrender: The Sensual Joys of Female Submission, New York, N.Y.: Citadel Press, →ISBN, page 204:

      Most club parties and private parties held in commercial dungeons in the United States have a dungeon master, mistress, or monitor (DM), whose responsibility it is to make sure that scenes are consensual and house rules are obeyed. If the DM asks you to stop doing something, please stop right away whether you feel you are right or wrong.

    • 2003, Suzi Parker, “Sticks and Stones, Whips and Chains”, in Sex in the South: Unbuckling the Bible Belt, Boston, Mass.: Justin, Charles & Co., →ISBN, page 101:

      Dungeon Master (DM) decisions are final. No appeals, arguments, or whining allowed. If a DM says to stop a scene, the scene must stop immediately.

17. (colloquial) A Dr. Martens boot or shoe.
    • 2012, W. Freedreamer Tinkanesh, Outsider, page 19:

      She kicked a hardback book with her left DM boot (14 eyelets were the minimum she would settle for), but the bestseller persisted in her path.

18. (soccer) Initialism of defensive midfielder.
19. (underwater diving) Initialism of divemaster.
20. (occupational health) Initialism of dust and mist.
21. (video games) Initialism of deathmatch.
22. (software) Abbreviation of display manager.

    Coordinate terms: WM, DE

Derived terms

• (direct message): slide into the DMs, slide into someone's DMs

Verb

DM (third-person singular simple present DMs, present participle DMing, simple past and past participle DMed or DM'd)

1. (Internet, transitive) To communicate by direct message, usually on a social media website.
   • 2021 August 2, Tyrone Mings, quotee, “Tyrone Mings Opens Up over Mental Health Struggles ahead of Euro 2020”, in Yahoo! Sports‎, archived from the original on 4 August 2021:

     Rio [Ferdinand] DM’d me after the tournament. He’d said I was the weak link, and that Croatia should be targeting me.

2. (roleplaying games) To dungeon master; to perform as a dungeon master; to run a tabletop role-playing game.

   Synonym: GM

Proper noun

DM

1. (UK) Initialism of Daily Mail, a national newspaper.
2. (linguistics) Initialism of Distributed Morphology.

Anagrams

• M. D., M.D., MD, Md, m.d., m/d

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /deːˈʔɛm/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Noun

DM f (genitive DM, no plural)

1. (money, historical) initialism of Deutsche Mark

   Coordinate term: M

Declension

Declension of DM [sg-only, feminine]

	singular
	indef.	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	DM
genitive	einer	der	DM
dative	einer	der	DM
accusative	eine	die	DM

Latin

Alternative forms

• D.M.

Phrase

DM

1. initialism of Dīs Mānibus, to/for the Spirits of the Dead, to/for the Spirit of the Deceased.

Usage notes

Extremely common as an initial formula on classical and late Roman tombstones, both pagan and Christian. Compare SD in Roman letter-writing.

Further reading

• "How to Parse Dis Manibus Syntactically" at the Latin StackExchange