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um¹

  • /ʌm/

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

Where it comes from

Onomatopoeic.

interjection

  1. Expression of hesitation, uncertainty or space filler in conversation. Um, I don’t know.

    Similar: er, hmm, uh, eh

  2. US Dated spelling of mmm. "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. 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.

verb ums · umming · ummed

  1. intransitive To make the um sound to express uncertainty or hesitancy. Meanwhile, in the popular mind umming was simply a bad habit, akin to spitting or picking one’s nose.

noun ums · ahm · ehm · em · erm · hum

  1. An occurrence of the interjection "um". 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 prohib

um²

Where it comes from

Variant form of -um.

particle

  1. dated, humorous, offensive, often, sometimes 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.

UM³

proper noun

  1. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of University of Miami
  2. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of University of Michigan

    Similar: UMich, Michigan

noun UMs

  1. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of unmounted mint

Um⁴

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Korean 엄(嚴) (Eom).

proper noun

  1. A surname from Korean.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: tiddle, kar, bak, ep, tre, uh, er, uhh, uhm, umm, hmm, mmm, ah, eh, huh, like

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Cite this
MLA

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

APA

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

Chicago

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

BibTeX
@misc{um_2026,
  title = {um},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/um},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}