Word.ws English Dictionary

beam

/ˈbiːm/

beam noun: any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.

beam: any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use
Image: daveynin from United States, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

beam (plural beams)

  1. (structural) Any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.
    • And a letter vnto Asaph the keeper of the kings forrest, that he may giue me timber to make beames for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the Citie, and for the house that I shall enter into: And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God vpon...1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Nehemiah 2:8
  2. (structural) One of the principal horizontal structural members, usually of steel, timber, or concrete, of a building.
    • The brasswork here, how rich it is in beams, / And how, besides, it makes the whole house sound.1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615...
    • Lucie opened the door: and what do you think there was inside the hill?—a nice clean kitchen with a flagged floor and wooden beams—just like any other farm kitchen.1905, Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle
  3. One of the transverse members of a ship's frame on which the decks are laid, and acting as part of the support for keeping the sides of the vessel in shape — supported at the sides by knees in wooden ships and by stringers in steel ones; cf. abeam, beam-ends.
    • Capt. King, from Demarara, was invaded by the gale on the evening of the 6th, in lat. 21° 51', and his vessel was thrown on her beam ends. He was forced to cut away her main-mast. Lost a man, who was washed overboard.
      . . .
      Capt. Mood, on a voyage from Alexandria (Virginia), to St. Mary's...1805 Alexander Tilloch. Account of a terrible Hurricane in the West Indies 1804. Philosophical Magazine. Vol. XXI. P. 14
    • It often happens that by a sudden squall of wind a vessel is thrown over upon her beam ends, without a prospect of recovering her erect while she remains upon the same tack, therefore attempts are made to veer her; but as the rudder lies along the surface of the water it becomes useless, and as the...1808 Richard Hall Gower. On the Theory and Practice of Seamanship.
  4. The maximum width of a vessel (note that a vessel with a beam of 15 foot can also be said to be 15 foot abeam).
    • This ship has more beam than that one.
    • Being only 280 ft. long, with a beam of 66 ft, their speed is moderate, and for a long time difficulty was experienced in steering them.1892, Sydney Marow Eardley-Wilmot, The Development of Navies During the Last Half-Century, Chapter 7
    Synonyms:
    breadth
  5. The direction across a vessel, perpendicular to fore-and-aft.
    • As the vessel passes a landmark, the landmark is said to be abeam. Once the vessel has passed the landmark, it falls abaft the beam, then it gradually falls astern.
  6. The straight part or shank of an anchor.
  7. The crossbar of a mechanical balance, from the ends of which the scales are suspended.
    • The doubtful beam long nods from side to side.1714, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC, canto V
  8. In steam engines, a heavy iron lever having an oscillating motion on a central axis, one end of which is connected with the piston rod from which it receives motion, and the other with the crank of the wheel shaft.
  9. (agricultural) The central bar of a plow, to which the handles and colter are secured, and to the end of which are attached the oxen or horses that draw it.
  10. A ray or collection of approximately parallel rays emitted from the sun or other luminous body.
    • a beam of light
    • a beam of energy
  11. (informal) The principal stem of the antler of a deer, which branches grow out from.
    Synonyms:
    hornbeam
  12. (informal) One of the long feathers in the wing of a hawk.
    Synonyms:
    beam feather
Show 7 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (literary) The pole of a carriage or chariot.
    • Soon after this be subdued the Pisidians who made head against him, and conquered the Phrygians, at whose chief city Gordium (which is said to have been the seat of the ancient Midas) he saw the famous chariot fastened with cords made of the bark of the Cornel-Tree, and was informed that the...a 1700, André Dacier, John Dryden, “Life of Alexander”, in Plutarch's Lives, translation of original by Plutarch
  2. A cylinder of wood, making part of a loom, on which weavers wind the warp before weaving and the cylinder on which the cloth is rolled, as it is woven.
  3. (figuratively) A ray; a gleam.
    • a beam of hope, or of comfort
    • Worthless and lost our offerings seem, / Drops in the ocean of his praise; / But Mercy with her genial beam / Is ripening them to pearly blaze, / To sparkle in His crown above, / Who welcomes here a child's as there an angel's love.1827, [John Keble], “Third Sunday after Epiphany”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume I, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J....
  4. A horizontal bar which connects the stems of two or more notes to group them and to indicate metric value.
  5. An elevated rectangular dirt pile used to cheaply build an elevated portion of a railway.
  6. A balance beam.
    1. A gymnastic activity or event using a balance beam.
  7. A broad smile.
    • He could barely remove the beam from his face when he said: "Arsenal is a massive club and you feel the pressure but I try to put in performances.2023 September 3, Phil McNulty, “Declan Rice: The game-changing midfielder Arsenal need for title challenge”, in BBC Sport

Verb

beam (third-person singular simple present beams, present participle beaming, simple past and past participle beamed)

  1. (ambitransitive) To emit beams of light; to shine; to radiate.
    • to beam forth light
    • Jesus beams golden light from his solar plexus into Eric's root chakra.2019, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 23
  2. (figuratively, intransitive) To smile broadly or especially cheerfully.
    • to beam with pride
  3. (transitive) To furnish or supply with beams.
  4. (transitive) To give the appearance of beams to.
  5. (transitive) To transmit matter or information via a high-tech wireless mechanism.
    • Beam me up, Scotty; there's no intelligent life down here.
    • The injured crewmembers were immediately beamed to sickbay.
  6. (transitive) To transmit, especially by direct wireless means such as infrared.
    • To beam a file using the File Transfer Protocol.1996, Eric S. Raymond, Guy L. Steele, The New Hacker's Dictionary, page 208
    • To beam a file to another Pocket PC, follow these steps: […]2002, Michael Miller, 10 Minute Guide to Pocket PC 2002, page 74
  7. (transitive, currying) To stretch something (for example, an animal hide) on a beam.
  8. (transitive) To put (something) on a beam.
  9. (transitive) To connect (musical notes) with a beam, or thick line, in music notation.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: BEAM

BEAM

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Bogdan's Erlang Abstract Machine.
    • Elixir is a functional, dynamic language built on top of Erlang and the Erlang VM (BEAM).2016, Kenny Ballou, Learning Elixir, Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 1

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Beam

Beam

  1. A surname.

beam meaning in Hindi, Sanskrit, Tagalog and Arabic

beam in Hindi

ray
किरण kiraṇ, रश्मि raśmi

beam in Sanskrit

ray
अक्तु aktú

beam in Tagalog

large piece of timber or iron
sinag, barakilan
principal horizontal beam in a building
sepo

beam in Arabic

large piece of timber or iron
خَشَبَة ḵašaba
principal horizontal beam in a building
كَمَرَة kamara, جَائِز jāʔiz
ray
شُعَاع šuʕāʕ
More languagesFewer languages
beam in Malay
rasuk, alang, galang, pelancar
beam in Indonesian
balok
beam in Persian
تیرک tirak, فرسپ farasp, میله mile, بامه bâme
beam in Vietnamese
tia

Examples of beam in a sentence

  • That light we ſee is burning in my hall: / How farre that little candle throws his beames, / So ſhines a good deed in a naughty world.c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […]...
  • A total of 15,000 beams of neutrinos were fired over a period of 3 years from CERN towards Gran Sassoin Italy, 730km (500 miles) away, where they were picked up by giant detectors.2011 September 22, Nick Collins, “Speed of light 'broken' by scientists”, in Daily Telegraph:
  • But Aristobulus tells us that he very easily undid it, by only pulling the pin out of the beam which fastened the yoke to it, and afterwards drawing out the yoke itself.a 1700, André Dacier, John Dryden, “Life of Alexander”, in Plutarch's Lives, translation of original by Plutarch:
  • Beam me up (x4) / Beam me up town / Beam me down (x3) / Beam me back downtown2010, “Beam Me Up”, in Walking the Midnight Streets, performed by Midnight Magic:

All 40 example sentences with beam

Synonyms of beam

All synonyms of beam

Forms of beam

Noun
pluralbeams
Verb
third-person singular presentbeams
present participlebeaming
past participlebeamed
pastbeamed

Past tense of beam: beamed

Plural of beam: beams

Origin of beam

From Middle English bem, beem, from Old English bēam (“tree, cross, gallows, column, pillar, wood, beam, splint, post, stock, rafter, piece of wood”), from Proto-West Germanic *baum, from Proto-Germanic *baumaz (“tree, beam, balk”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to grow, swell”). Cognate with North Frisian Boom, buum (“tree”), Saterland Frisian Boom (“tree”), West Frisian beam (“tree”), Cimbrian pome, póom, puam (“tree”), Dutch boom (“tree”), German Low German Boom (“tree”), German Baum (“tree”), Luxembourgish Bam (“tree”), Mòcheno pa'm (“tree”), Vilamovian baojm (“tree”), Yiddish בוים (boym, “tree”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish bom (“beam”), Icelandic baðmur (“tree”), Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌲𐌼𐍃 (bagms, “tree”), Albanian bimë (“a plant”). Doublet of boom. The original English meaning of beam ("tree") is preserved in some compound words such as quickbeam. The verb is from Middle English bemen, from Old English bēamian (“to shine, to cast forth rays or beams of light”), from the noun.

Words formed from beam

Phrases with beam

50 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with beam

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about beam

What does beam mean?
Beam means any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.
What is beam in Hindi?
Beam in Hindi is किरण (kiraṇ), रश्मि (raśmi). See Beam meaning in Hindi.
How do you use beam in a sentence?
That light we ſee is burning in my hall: / How farre that little candle throws his beames, / So ſhines a good deed in a naughty world.
What part of speech is beam?
Beam can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce beam?
Beam is pronounced /ˈbiːm/.
What is the plural of beam?
The plural of beam is beams.

Words near beam in the dictionary

  1. Beals-Hecht syndrome
  2. Bealtaine
  3. Bealtine
  4. Bealtuinn
  5. Bealville
  6. beam
  7. beam and scales
  8. Beam Bridge
  9. beam compass
  10. beam compasses
  11. beam engine

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beam (page history and authors); BEAM (page history and authors); Beam (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.

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

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