English Explanatory Dictionary

hum

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A hummed tune, i.e. created orally with lips closed.
  2. An often indistinct sound resembling human humming.
  3. Busy activity, like the buzz of a beehive.
  4. Unpleasant odour.
  5. An imposition or hoax; humbug.
  6. A kind of strong drink.
  7. A phenomenon, or collection of phenomena, involving widespread reports of a persistent and invasive low-frequency humming, rumbling, or droning noise not audible to all people.
verb
  1. To make a sound from the vocal cords without pronouncing any real words, with one's lips closed.
  2. To express by humming.
  3. To drone like certain insects naturally do in motion, or sounding similarly.
  4. To buzz, be busily active like a beehive
  5. To produce low sounds which blend continuously
  6. To reek, smell bad.
  7. To flatter by approving; to cajole; to deceive or impose upon; to humbug.
intj
  1. Synonym of hmm: a noise indicating thought, consideration, &c.
  2. Synonym of um: a noise indicating doubt, uncertainty, &c.
noun
  1. Synonym of see hum (“blood cockles, ark clams”).
name
  1. A town in the central part of Istria, northwest Croatia, 7 km from Roč.
noun
  1. Initialism of highly unusual method: any of a class of contract bridge bidding systems that require advance preparation to contend with, and are usually restricted to the highest levels of tournament play.

Pronunciation

/ˈhʌm/ en-us-hum.ogg /hʌm/ [häm(˦)]

Word forms

hum hums humming hummed

Etymology

From Middle English hummen (“to hum, buzz, drone, make a murmuring sound to cover embarrassment”); akin to Dutch hommelen (“to bumble, buzz”), dialectal Dutch hommen (“to buzz, hum”), Middle High German hummen (“to hum”), probably ultimately of imitative origin.

Synonyms

bombinate buzz drone hum thrum whirr whizz croon bumble bustle hustle funk stink honk niff pong reek smell stink to high heaven whiff blandish inveigle sweet-talk blandander butter up cajole fast-talk canoodle carny coax collogue croodle engle fleech honey around honey up ingle soap soft-sawder soft-soap stroke tweedle twist wheedle whilly word hmm um see hum

Antonyms

snap

Related words

humblebee humming hum bow om mani padme hum

Derived words

antihum humbird hum-box humbucker humdudgeon mains hum sixty cycle hum hummy ahum ho-hum hum along hum and ha hum and haw humble hum-buzz hummable hummer hummingbird humming-top unhummed ho hum
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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