Word.ws English Dictionary

am

/əm/UK/æm/

am is the first-person singular present indicative of be.

am is the contraction of I.

am is the alternative spelling of a.m..

Meaning of be

Verb

be (highly irregular—See conjugation table)

  1. (auxiliary) Used with past participles of verbs to form the passive voice.
    • The dog was saved by the boy.
  2. Used with present participles of verbs to form the continuous aspect.
    • The woman is walking.
  3. Used with to-infinitives of verbs to express intent, obligation, appropriateness, or relative future occurrence.
    • I am to leave tomorrow.
  4. Used with past participles of certain intransitive verbs to form the perfect aspect.
    • He is finished.
  5. (Caribbean, Ireland, auxiliary, African-American Vernacular) To tend to do, often do; marks the habitual aspect.
    • Women be shoppin’! You cannot stop a woman from shoppin’!1996, David Sheffield, Barry W. Blaustein, Tom Shadyac and Steve Oedekerk, screenplay of The Nutty Professor
  6. (with-dummy-subject) To exist.
    • There is just one woman in town who can help us.

See all 25 meanings of be

Meaning of I

Pronoun

I (first person singular subject personal pronoun, objective me, possessive my, possessive pronoun mine, reflexive myself)

  1. (first-person, personal, pronoun, singular, subjective) The speaker or writer, referred to as the grammatical subject, of a sentence.
    • I drove my sister and myself to school.
  2. (first-person, nonstandard, personal, pronoun, singular, subjective) The speaker or writer, referred to as the grammatical object, of a sentence.
    • Mom drove my sister and I to school.

See all 7 meanings of i

Proper noun capitalized: AM

AM

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Amazonas: a state of Brazil.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Aston Martin.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Arctic Monkeys.

Adverb (1) capitalized: AM

AM (not comparable)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of anno mundi

Adverb (2) capitalized: AM

AM (not comparable)

  1. (alternative) Alternative form of a.m. (“before noon”).

Noun capitalized: AM

AM (countable and uncountable, plural AMs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Master of Arts.
  2. (UK, abbreviation, historical, initialism) Initialism of Assembly Member, a title similar to MP, placed after the name of a Member of the Welsh National Assembly.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of automated mapping, used in conjunction with Facilities Managements abbreviations (AM/FM).
  4. Member of the Order of Australia.
  5. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of amplitude modulation; radio programming broadcasted in this form.
    • That station is available on both AM and FM.
    • They were listening to AM and complaining about the static.
  6. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of additive manufacturing.
    • The system, says Freeman is currently being used to assess exactly how AM powders pack and flow to ensure process efficiency and consistent product quality.2015 September, Steven E. Kuehn, “I'm Printing Your Prescription Now, Ma'am”, in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Putnam Media, page 7

Adjective capitalized: Am

Am

  1. Shortened form of America or American, particularly as used in commercial names.
  2. Shortened form of amateur, particularly as used in commercial names.

Forms of am

Proper noun
alternative formA.M.
alternative formA. M.
alternative formA M
Noun
pluralAMs

Origin of am

From Middle English am, em, from Old English eam, eom (“am”), from Proto-West Germanic *im, from Proto-Germanic *immi, *izmi (“am”, form of the verb *wesaną (“to be; dwell”)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésmi (“to be, to exist”). Cognate with Old Norse em (Old Swedish æm (“am”)), Gothic 𐌹𐌼 (im, “am”), Ancient Greek εἰμῐ́ (eimĭ́, “am”), Old Armenian եմ (em, “am”), Albanian jam (“am”).

Words formed from am

Phrases with am

43 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with am

47 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about am

What does am mean?
Am means member of the Order of Australia.
What is am the first-person singular present indicative of?
Am is the first-person singular present indicative of be.
What part of speech is am?
Am can be a proper noun, an adverb, a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce am?
Am is pronounced /əm/.

Words near am in the dictionary

  1. Alès
  2. alépine
  3. alépines
  4. Alūksne
  5. Alțina
  6. am
  7. am ha'aretz
  8. am haarez
  9. am I right
  10. am I right or am I right
  11. am I under arrest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: am (page history and authors); AM (page history and authors); Am (page history and authors); be (page history and authors); I (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-am.ogg.

Cite this entry: “am.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/am. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.