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um

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Appendix:Variations of "um"
Languages (33)
Translingual • English
Czech • Dutch • East Makian • Elfdalian • Faroese • Galician • German • Gullah • Hawaiian Creole • Hunsrik • Icelandic • Indo-Portuguese • Irish • Khasi • Ladino • Livonian • Lote • Luxembourgish • Mizo • Mòcheno • Norwegian Nynorsk • Old Norse • Pennsylvania German • Pnar • Polish • Portuguese • Romansch • Sawai • Scots • Serbo-Croatian • Slovak
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Translingual

Etymology

From u- (“micro-”) +‎ m (“metre”).

Symbol

um

  2. (metrology, informal, proscribed) Alternative form of μm.

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology 1

Onomatopoeic.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ʌm/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌm (when stressed, or as a verb)

Used in rhotic dialects. Compare to British English erm.

Interjection

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, 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, 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!'

Verb

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.

Noun

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, 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.

Alternative forms

Etymology 2

Variant form of -um.

Particle

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, volume III, page 3:
      “me heap brave—me talk to um white man so […] me good injun, like um white man, mebbe so, ugh!”

See also

Anagrams

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Czech

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *umъ.

Noun

um m inan

  1. skill, art
Declension
Declension of um (hard masculine inanimate)
More information singular, plural ...
Derived terms
adjectives
nouns
verbs

See also

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Noun

um f

  1. genitive plural of uma

Further reading

Dutch

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Interjection

um

  1. um (expressing hesitation)
    Synonyms: ehm, eh, uh

East Makian

Noun

um

  1. house

References

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

Elfdalian

Etymology

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

Conjunction

um

  1. if

Preposition

um

  1. around
  2. about (a subject)

Faroese

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Preposition

um

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

Conjunction

um

  1. whether, if

Galician

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

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈuŋ/ [ˈuŋ]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -uŋ
  • Hyphenation: um

Numeral

um m (feminine umha or uma, reintegrationist norm)

  1. one

Usage notes

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

Derived terms

References

  • “um”, in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (in Galician), 2014–2025
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German

Alternative forms

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

Preposition

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.

Inflection

More information preposition, + wo- ...

Derived terms

Conjunction

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.

Adjective

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)

Adverb

um

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

Derived terms

Gullah

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Pronoun

um

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

Usage notes

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

Inflection

More information Number, singular ...

1 alternate spelling

References

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Hawaiian Creole

Etymology

Derived from English ’em.

Pronoun

um

  1. them (those ones)
    • 2000, “Matthew 8”, in Joseph Grimes, transl., Da Jesus Book: Hawaii Pidgin New Testament‎, 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.
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Hunsrik

Pronunciation

Preposition

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.

Derived terms

Adverb

um

  1. around, about
    Das kost um zweu hunnerd Rëal.
    This costs around two hundred reais.

Further reading

Icelandic

Alternative forms

Etymology

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

Adverb

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.

Derived terms

Preposition

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.

Usage notes

  • 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!

Derived terms

Indo-Portuguese

Etymology

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

Article

um

  1. a (the indefinite article)
    • 1883, Hugo Schuchardt, Kreolische Studien, volume 3:
      Um homm tinh doiz filh:
      A man had two sons:

Irish

Khasi

Ladino

Livonian

Lote

Luxembourgish

Mizo

Mòcheno

Norwegian Nynorsk

Old Norse

Pennsylvania German

Pnar

Polish

Portuguese

Romansch

Sawai

Scots

Serbo-Croatian

Slovak

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