ham
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ham¹
- /ˈhæm/ UK
- [ˈhæm] ~ [ˈham] UK
- /ˈham/ British, Midlands, Southern
- [ˈham] British, Midlands, Southern
- /ˈham/ Northern England, Scotland, Wales
- [ˈham] ~ [ˈhäm] Northern England, Scotland, Wales
- /ˈhæm/ Canada, US
- [ˈhæm]
- [ˈheə̯m] ~ [ˈhɛə̯m]
- /ˈhæːm/ Australia
- [ˈhæːm]
- [ˈheːm] ~ [ˈhɛːm]
- /ˈhɛm/ New Zealand
- [ˈhɛm] New Zealand
Rhymes with -æm
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English hamme, from Old English hamm (“inner or hind part of the knee, ham”), from Proto-West Germanic *hammu, from Proto-Germanic *hamō, *hammō, *hanmō, from Proto-Indo-European *kónh₂m (“leg”).
Cognate with Dutch ham (“ham”), dialectal German Hamme (“hind part of the knee, ham”), dialectal Swedish ham (“the hind part of the knee”), Icelandic höm (“the ham or haunch of a horse”), Old Irish cnáim (“bone”), Ancient Greek κνήμη (knḗmē, “shinbone”). Compare gammon and gam.
noun hams
- The region back of the knee joint; the popliteal space; the hock.
- A thigh and/or buttock of a hog slaughtered for meat; (occasionally) the corresponding cut from some other animal. "I'll have you so your hams will stand out like horse's shanks!" de declared.
- Meat from the thigh and/or buttock of a hog cured for food. a little piece of ham for the cat
- The back of the thigh of humans or certain other animals.
-
Electronic mail that is wanted; email that is not spam or junk mail.
Similar: ham e-mail · Opposite: spam, junk mail
ham²
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English ham, from Old English hām.
noun
- Obsolete form of home
ham³
Where it comes from
Uncertain, though it is generally agreed upon that it first appeared in print around the 1880s. At least four theories persist:
* It came naturally from the word amateur. Deemed likely by Hendrickson (1997), but then the question would be why it took so long to pop up. He rejects the folk etymology of Cockney slang hamateur because it originated in American English.
* From the play Hamlet, where the title character was often played poorly and/or in an exaggerated manner. Also deemed likely by Hendrickson, though he raises the issue that the term would have likely been around earlier if this were the case.
* From the minstrel's practice of using ham fat to remove heavy black makeup used during performances.
* Shortened from hamfatter (“inferior actor”), said to derive from the 1863 minstrel show song The Ham-fat Man. William and Mary Morris (1988) argue that it's not known whether the song inspired the term or the term inspired the song, but that they believe the latter is the case.
noun hams
- An overacting or amateurish performer; an actor with an especially showy or exaggerated style. Writing in The New Yorker in 2005, James Wood praised Mr. McCarthy as “a colossally gifted writer” and “one of the great hams of American prose, who delights in producing a histrionic rhetoric that brilliantly ventriloquizes the King James Bible, Shakespearean and Jacobean tragedy, Melville, Conrad,
-
An amateur radio operator.
Similar: radio amateur
verb hams · hamming · hammed
-
To overact; to act with exaggerated emotions.
Near-synonym: camp it up
Similar: ham it up, chew the scenery, melodramatize, overact, tear a cat, camp it up
Ham⁴
- /hæm/
Sounds like ham · Rhymes with -æm
Where it comes from
* As an English and German surname, variant of Hamm.
* As a Dutch surname, from the noun ham (“bend in a river”). Compare Van Ham, Vanderham.
* As a French surname, from several placenames, from the Frankish source of the Dutch word above.
* As a Serbo-Croatian, Slovak and Hungarian surname (Hám), from the noun hám (“harness”), and sometimes from the German sense above.
* As a Slovene surname, possibly from the "harness" or German senses above, or from ham (“grab, bite”).
* As a Czech surname, shortened from Abraham.
* As a Korean surname, from the name 함 (ham) (more at Ham). Compare Hahm.
* As a Chinese surname, from several names such as 咸 (xián) (see Xian), 闞 /阚 (see Kan), 范 (fàn) (see fan), 譚 /谭 (tán) (see Tan), and possibly 涵 (hán, “contain”).
* In some English surnames, from Old English hām, probably reduced from a name using it as a suffix -ham.
proper noun Hams
- A surname.
- A suburb and ward in Plymouth, Devon, England (OS grid ref SX4657).
- A small village in Ham and Stone parish, Stroud district, Gloucestershire, England (OS grid ref ST6898).
- A suburban area in the borough of Richmond upon Thames and borough of Kingston upon Thames, Greater London, England (OS grid ref TQ1771).
- Two districts (East Ham and West Ham) in borough of Newham, Greater London.
- A hamlet in Northbourne parish, Dover district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TR3254).
- A small village and civil parish in eastern Wiltshire, England, south of Hungerford, West Berkshire (OS grid ref SU3363).
- A village in Caithness, Highland council area, Scotland (OS grid ref ND2373)
Ham⁵
- /hæm/
Sounds like ham · Rhymes with -æm
Where it comes from
From Hebrew חָם.
proper noun
- A son of Noah and the brother of Japheth and Shem.
HAM⁶
noun H.A.M.
- Initialism of his apostolic majesty, the title given to a number of historical kings of Hungary.
proper noun H.A.M.
- Initialism of Hold-And-Modify, a display mode of the Commodore Amiga computer, allowing for a large number of colours on screen.
adverb H.A.M.
- Initialism of hard as a motherfucker, extremely hard, extremely intensely, crazily.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: gammon, jambon, overact, overplay, ham actor, pork, eat, saltwater, sink, prosciutto, hock, cam, amateur, emoter, significant, important
Translations
Every language
noun region back of the knee joint
| 日本語 | 膝裏 hizaura, 膕 hikagami, 膝窩 shikka |
|---|---|
| Português | póplite |
| Deutsch | Kniekehle |
| Русский | бедро́ bedró, ля́жка ljážka |
noun thigh and buttock of any animal slaughtered for meat
| Español | pernil, jamón, lunada |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | Schinken |
| Русский | о́корок ókorok |
noun thigh of a hog cured for food
| Español | jamón |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 햄 haem |
| 日本語 | ハム hamu |
| 中文 | 火腿 huǒtuǐ |
| हिन्दी | हम ham |
| Kiswahili | hemu |
| Português | presunto, pernil |
| Français | jambon |
| Deutsch | Schinken |
| Italiano | prosciutto |
| Ελληνικά | χοιρομέρι choiroméri, ζαμπόν zampón |
| Română | șuncă |
| Русский | о́корок ókorok, ветчина́ vetčiná, хамо́н xamón |
| Tiếng Việt | giăm bông |
| العربية | هَام hām |
| עברית | שִׁינְקֵן shínken, שִׁינְקֵה shínke |
noun actor with an exaggerating style
| Español | comicastro, histriónico |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 大根 daikon, 大根役者 daikon yakusha |
| Português | canastrão |
| Français | cabotin, cabotine |
| Deutsch | Schmierenkomödiant, Schmierenschauspieler |
| Ελληνικά | άσχετος áschetos |
| Русский | позёр pozjór |
noun ham radio operator
| Español | radioamador, radioaficionado |
|---|---|
| Português | radioamador |
| Français | radioamateur |
| Deutsch | Amateurfunker, Amateurfunkerin, Funkamateur, Funkamateurin |
| Italiano | radioamatore |
| Ελληνικά | ραδιοερασιτέχνης radioerasitéchnis |
| Русский | радиолюби́тель radioljubítelʹ |
verb overact
| Español | sobreactuar |
|---|---|
| Français | cabotiner |
| Deutsch | (sich) aufspielen |
Talk about this word "ham." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/ham. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. ham. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/ham "ham." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/ham.Cite this
@misc{ham_2026,
title = {ham},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/ham},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
