English Explanatory Dictionary

ham

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The region back of the knee joint; the popliteal space; the hock.
  2. A thigh and/or buttock of a hog slaughtered for meat; (occasionally) the corresponding cut from some other animal.
  3. Meat from the thigh and/or buttock of a hog cured for food.
  4. The back of the thigh of humans or certain other animals.
  5. Electronic mail that is wanted; email that is not spam or junk mail.
noun
  1. Obsolete form of home.
noun
  1. An overacting or amateurish performer; an actor with an especially showy or exaggerated style.
  2. An amateur radio operator.
verb
  1. To overact; to act with exaggerated emotions.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A suburb and ward in Plymouth, Devon, England (OS grid ref SX4657).
  3. A small village in Ham and Stone parish, Stroud district, Gloucestershire, England (OS grid ref ST6898).
  4. A suburban area in the borough of Richmond upon Thames and borough of Kingston upon Thames, Greater London, England (OS grid ref TQ1771).
  5. Two districts (East Ham and West Ham) in borough of Newham, Greater London.
  6. A hamlet in Northbourne parish, Dover district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TR3254).
  7. A small village and civil parish in eastern Wiltshire, England, south of Hungerford, West Berkshire (OS grid ref SU3363).
  8. A village in Caithness, Highland council area, Scotland (OS grid ref ND2373)
name
  1. A son of Noah and the brother of Japheth and Shem.
noun
  1. Initialism of his apostolic majesty, the title given to a number of historical kings of Hungary.
name
  1. Initialism of Hold-And-Modify, a display mode of the Commodore Amiga computer, allowing for a large number of colours on screen.
adv
  1. Initialism of hard as a motherfucker, extremely hard, extremely intensely, crazily.

Pronunciation

hăm /ˈhæm/ /ˈhæːm/ en-us-ham.ogg en-uk-ham.ogg /hæm/

Word forms

ham hams hamming hammed H.A.M.

Etymology

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.

Synonyms

ham e-mail hambone hamfatter overactor tear-cat radio amateur ham it up chew the scenery melodramatize overact tear a cat camp it up

Antonyms

spam junk mail

Related words

hamlet mug pose go ham HRAM

Derived words

Admiralty ham Bayonne ham Black Forest ham burger butter-ham chipped chopped ham chipped ham Christmas ham country ham deviled ham devilled ham dressmaker's ham Gourock ham ham and beef shop ham-and-egger ham and eggs ham-and-eggs daisy ham barbecue hambeast hambone ham chin peng ham e-mail hamfat ham-fistedly ham-handed ham-handedly ham-handedness ham hands ham hock hamily hamlike hammie hammy hamplanet ham salad ham sandwich ham-sandwich ham sandwich theorem hamshackle ham shank ham steak hamstring ham up hamwich Jinhua ham Limerick ham mutton ham Parma ham pressed ham Smithfield ham Spam Spanish ham stuffed ham tailor's ham Taylor ham turkey ham Westphalian ham York ham ham-fisted hamese
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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