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sam

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Sam¹

  • /ˈsæm/ UK, US
  • /ˈsæːm/ Australia, Southern England

Rhymes with -æm

proper noun Sams

  1. A diminutive of the male given names Samuel and Samson. While the plane is “perfectly capable” of making the trip without these modifications, Zara’s father Sam Rutherford says these changes have given both him and Zara an extra sense of security.
  2. A diminutive of the female given name Samantha.
  3. A surname from Cantonese, a romanization of 岑 (sam⁴) or 沈 (cam⁴ / zam³).
  4. A town in Alibori department, Benin.
  5. A town in Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso.
  6. A town in Bourzanga department, Bam, Burkina Faso.
  7. A village in Kongoussi department, Bam, Burkina Faso.
  8. A Trans-New Guinea language of Papua New Guinea.
  9. A surname from Khmer
  10. Ireland, informal The Sam Maguire Cup awarded to the All-Ireland GAA football winning team.

noun Sams

  1. UK, informal Synonym of Dicky Sam (“a man from Liverpool”)

    Similar: Dicky Sam

sam²

  • /sæm/

Sounds like Sam (Received Pronunciation, US) · Rhymes with -æm

Where it comes from

From Middle English sammen, samnen, from Old English samnian, ġesamnian (“to collect, assemble, bring together, gather, join, unite, compose, meet, glean”), from Proto-West Germanic *samnōn, from Proto-Germanic *samnōną (“to gather”), from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Cognate with Dutch zamelen (“to collect”), German sammeln (“to collect, gather”), Swedish samla (“to gather, collect”), Icelandic samna (“to gather, collect”). More at same.

verb sams · samming · sammed · samen

  1. UK, dialectal, transitive To assemble.
  2. UK, dialectal, transitive, of persons To bring together; join (in marriage, friendship, love, etc.).
  3. UK, dialectal, transitive, of things To bring together; collect; put in order; arrange. I sammed it up for ye
  4. UK, dialectal, intransitive To assemble; come together.
  5. UK, dialectal, transitive To coagulate; curdle (milk).

sam³

Where it comes from

From Middle English sām (“together”), from Old English samen (“together”), from Proto-West Germanic *saman, from Proto-Germanic *samanai (“together”), from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“together, one”).

adverb

  1. not comparable, obsolete Together Now are they saints all in that city sam.

sam⁴

  • /sæm/

Sounds like Sam (Received Pronunciation, US) · Rhymes with -æm

Where it comes from

From Middle English sam- (prefix), from Old English sam-, from Proto-Germanic *sēmi- (“half”), from Proto-Indo-European *sēmi- (“half”). Related to semi- (via Latin).

adjective

  1. dialectal, not comparable Half or imperfectly done.
  2. not comparable, of food Half-heated.

sam⁵

  • /sæm/

Sounds like Sam (Received Pronunciation, US) · Rhymes with -æm

Where it comes from

Possibly from Uncle Sam.

noun sams

  1. slang Federal narcotics agent.

SAM⁶

proper noun

  1. abbreviation, acronym Acronym of Sample Analysis at Mars (a scientific instrument of the Mars Science Laboratory on board the Curiosity rover on Mars.)

noun SAMs

  1. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of surface-to-air missile
  2. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of self-assembled monolayer
  3. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of systolic anterior motion
  4. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of single abstract method A SAM conversion occurs when Java converts the SAM interface into functional code.
  5. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of split attraction model The SAM is a way of deliberately de-coupling sex and romance.
  6. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of shared appreciation mortgage
  7. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of smartass masochist; a brat. Sexy dyke seeks seasoned top to spice up my play life. Interested? Think you have what it takes to tame a novice SAM? Write me at GCN Box 545
  8. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of serviceable addressable/available market

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: surface-to-air missile, danny, shawn, samuel, sophie, denise, samantha, donaldson, cheong, baum, kalpa, saturday, lady, marc, sammy, holly

Translations

Every language

noun surface-to-air missile

DeutschFlaRak (Flugabwehrrakete)

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MLA

"sam." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sam. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

sam. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sam

Chicago

"sam." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sam.

BibTeX
@misc{sam_2026,
  title = {sam},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sam},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}