cram
/kɹæm/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British/kɹam/
cram verb: to press, force, or drive, particularly in filling, or in thrusting one thing into another; to stuff; to fill to superfluity.
Verb
cram (third-person singular simple present crams, present participle cramming, simple past and past participle crammed)
- To press, force, or drive, particularly in filling, or in thrusting one thing into another; to stuff; to fill to superfluity.
- to cram fruit into a basket; to cram a room with people
- But you still need to check in with the Arch Linux community now and then to make sure that none of their crazy shit is going to be crammed down your throat the next update.
- To fill with food to satiety; to stuff.
- The boy crammed himself with cake
- To put hastily through an extensive course of memorizing or study, as in preparation for an examination.
- A pupil is crammed by his tutor.
- To study hard; to swot.
- To eat greedily, and to satiety; to stuff oneself.
- To lie; to intentionally not tell the truth.
- To make (a person) believe false or exaggerated tales.
Noun
cram (countable and uncountable, plural crams)
- The act of cramming (forcing or stuffing something).
- But Billy Bunter was only the first in the field. As the news spread, there was a crowd, not to call it a cram, in No. 7 Study: […]1952, Frank Richards, Billy Bunter and the Blue Mauritius
- Information hastily memorized.
- a cram from an examination
- A warp having more than two threads passing through each dent or split of the reed.
- A lie; a falsehood.
- It is awful, an old un like that telling such crams as she do.1864, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, Uncle Silas
- Shut up, and don't tell crams.1894, Talbot Baines Reed, Tom, Dick, and Harry, page 107
- A mathematical board game in which players take turns placing dominoes horizontally or vertically until no more can be placed, the loser being the player who cannot continue.
- A small friendship book with limited space for people to enter their information.
- Regular friendship books had a variety of variations, such as slams, crams, and decos.2017, Mark Duffett, Fan Identities and Practices in Context: Dedicated to Music, page 194
- Pen pals also make and pass around friendship books, slams and crams. In recent years, pen pal correspondence with prison inmates has gained acceptance on the Internet.2019, Manjit Bal, Lovingly Yours - Penpals
Proper noun capitalized: Cram
Cram (plural Crams)
- A surname.
cram meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
cram in Hindi
- the act of cramming
- रटना raṭnā
cram in Tamil
- to press, force, or drive, particularly in filling, or in thrusting one thing into another
- திணி tiṇi
cram in Urdu
- ٹھوسنا
cram in Bengali
- ঠাসা, পুরোপুরি ভর্তি করা
More languagesFewer languages
- cram in Malayalam
- നിറയ്ക്കുക, മടുപ്പുവരുവോളം തീറ്റിക്കുക, കുത്തിനിറയ്ക്കുക
- cram in Kannada
- ಅಡಸು, ಅದುಮು, ಅದಕು, ತುರುಂಕು
- cram in Gujarati
- ખોસવું khosvũ
- cram in Nepali
- क्र्याम गर्न, क्राम गर्न
- cram in Thai
- กวดวิชา gùuat-wíchaa
- cram in Vietnamese
- nhồi, nhét
- cram in Myanmar
- သိပ် sip
Examples of cram in a sentence
- In part, yes, but as Sir John Eliot had observed in 1955, while Chairman of the London Transport Executive: 'They're not crammed in.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 244:
- The station platforms and waiting rooms are crammed with people, many toting enormous amounts of baggage as they have just come off a cruise liner.2022 November 16, Paul Bigland, “From rural branches to high-speed arteries”, in RAIL, number 970, page 55:
Synonyms of cram
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of cram
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | crams |
| present participle | cramming |
| past participle | crammed |
| past | crammed |
| Noun | |
| plural | crams |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Crams |
Origin of cram
From Middle English crammen, from Old English crammian (“to cram; stuff”), from Proto-West Germanic *krammōn, from Proto-Germanic *krammōną, a secondary verb derived from *krimmaną (“to stuff”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to assemble; collect; gather”). Compare Old English crimman (“to cram; stuff; insert; press; bruise”), Icelandic kremja (“to squeeze; crush; bruise”).
Words formed from cram
Phrases with cram
Words that rhyme with cram
47 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about cram
- What does cram mean?
- Cram means to press, force, or drive, particularly in filling, or in thrusting one thing into another; to stuff; to fill to superfluity.
- What is cram in Hindi?
- Cram in Hindi is रटना (raṭnā). See Cram meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use cram in a sentence?
- In part, yes, but as Sir John Eliot had observed in 1955, while Chairman of the London Transport Executive: 'They're not crammed in.
- What part of speech is cram?
- Cram can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce cram?
- Cram is pronounced /kɹæm/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of cram?
- The past tense of cram is crammed.
Words near cram in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cram (page history and authors); Cram (page history and authors); cram (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cram (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cram (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cram (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ખોસવું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); cram (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cram.wav.
Cite this entry: “cram.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cram. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.