Word.ws English Dictionary

em

/ˈɛm/

em noun: the name of the Latin script letter M/m. Also the alternative form of 'em.

Noun (1)

em (plural ems)

  1. The name of the Latin script letter M/m.
    • It said, in a whispering, buzzing voice, "Gee-you-ess-ess-ay-dash-em-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-em-eye-en-gee-oh-dash-pee-eye-pee-dash-pee-ee-ar-ar-wye-dash-pee-eye-en-gee-oh."2004, Will Rogers, The Stonking Steps, page 170
  2. A unit of measurement equal to the height of the type in use.
    • Insert here a one-em dash or long dash.
    • That the price of work, paid for by letters be advanced from fourpence to fourpence halfpenny per thousand, including English and brevier; and, in leaded matter, the ems and ens at the beginnings and ends of the lines not to be reckoned in the width.1808, C[aleb] Stower, “An Account of the Different Advances in Journeymen’s Wages, from the Year 1785 to 1805, with the Present Regulations and Scale of Prices”, in The Compositor’s and Pressman’s...
    Synonyms:
    quad, em quad, mutton, mut
  3. A relative unit of sizing defined in terms of the font size.

Pronoun

IPA/ɛm/

em (third-person singular, gender-neutral, objective case, reflexive emself, possessive adjective eir, possessive pronoun eirs)

  1. (gender-neutral, nonstandard, objective, rare, singular, third-person) A gender-neutral third-person singular object pronoun, the objective case of ey or e, equivalent to the singular them and coordinate with him and her.
    • If the author uses such notation, it should be up to Em to indicate Eir intentions clearly, but there’s no harm checking first.1986 April 1, Michael Spivak, The Joy of TeX: A Gourmet Guide to Typesetting with the AMS-TeX macro package, Providence: American Mathematical Society, →ISBN, →LCCN, LCC Z253.4.T47 S673 1986, page 68
    • I may become quite intimate with someone, spend hours with em every night, and yet not have the slightest idea what eir voice sounds like, or what eir RL body looks, feels, and smells like.1997, Steven Shaviro, Doom Patrols : A Theoretical Fiction About Postmodernism, London: Serpent's Tail, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 138

Interjection

IPA/ɛ(ː)m/

  1. (Ireland, Scotland) a form of hesitant speech, or an expression of uncertainty
    • She was abused by, em... David, I think. That was his name, he's a real em... what's the word, narcissist. You should really stay away from him.
    Synonyms:
    um, umm, erm, eh, uh

Noun (2)

em (plural ems)

  1. The name of the letter м/М in Cyrillic alphabets.

Noun (3) capitalized: EM

EM (countable and uncountable, plural EMs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of emergency medicine.
  2. (abbreviation, countable) Abbreviation of electron microscope.
  3. (abbreviation, uncountable) Abbreviation of electron microscopy.
  4. (abbreviation, initialism, uncountable) Initialism of electromagnetism.
  5. (abbreviation, initialism, criminal justice) Initialism of electronic monitoring.
  6. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of emerging market.
  7. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of enlisted man.
  8. (abbreviation, countable, initialism) Initialism of effective microorganism.
  9. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of energy management.
  10. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of English medium.

Adjective capitalized: EM

EM (not comparable)

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of electromagnetic.
    • Secondary drone got EM spectrum on the kill.1992, Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep, New York: Tor, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 315
    • Commander, I can see most of it now. Readings are all over the EM spectrum.2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: Tsavo Highway

Proper noun capitalized: Em

Em

  1. A diminutive of the female given names Emily, Emma, and Emmeline.
    • And oh, Aunt Em! I'm so glad to be at home again!1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, chapter 24, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC
    • Mind you, he never calls me anything back. Isn't that the way of it? What do men call their wives. 'Em...' Like every woman in the planet was christened Emily. 'Em...is that shirt clean?'2008, Anne Enright, Yesterday's Weather, Vintage, published 2009, →ISBN, page 4
  2. (abbreviation, clipping) Clipping of Eminem.

Noun (4) capitalized: Em

Em (plural Ems)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of em.

Also used as

em is also the alternative form of 'em.

em meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Tagalog

em in Hindi

name of the letter M, m
एम् em, एम em

em in Marathi

name of the letter M, m
एम em

em in Bengali

name of the letter M, m
এম em

em in Tagalog

name of the letter M, m
em
More languagesFewer languages
em in Arabic
إِم ʔem
em in Malay
em
em in Persian
ام em
em in Thai
เอ็ม em
em in Vietnamese
em-mờ, em, mờ

Examples of em in a sentence

  • E invites em to consider how ey represent emselves^([sic]), and in so doing, e focuses eir attention on the ethics that make human relations possible.2000, Jane Love, “Ethics, Plugged and Unplugged: The Pegagogy of Disorderly Conduct”, in James A. Inman, Donna N. Sewell, editors, Taking...
  • And ultimately: I think my readers are mature enough that knowing eir assigned gender is not going to give them an “excuse” to misgender em.2011 March 15, RJ Edwards, “89: New Friend”, in Riot Nrrd, archived from the original on 30 May 2013:

All 40 example sentences with em

Synonyms of em

All synonyms of em

Forms of em

Noun
pluralems
pluralEMs
pluralEms
Pronoun
reflexiveemself
adjective possessiveeir
possessive pronoun without-nouneirs

Plural of em: ems

Origin of em

Attested since 1808. In typography, the em is named after the em quadrat (later called em quad), from m quadrat, a metal type used in letterpress typesetting, which is as wide as the point size of the font.

See 'em.

Coined by Christine M. Elverson by removing the "th" from them, perhaps influenced by the pre-existing em/'em, now often perceived as apheretic forms of them (though originally unrelated).

Words formed from em

Phrases with em

Words that rhyme with em

22 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about em

What does em mean?
Em means the name of the Latin script letter M/m.
What is em in Hindi?
Em in Hindi is एम् (em), एम (em). See Em meaning in Hindi.
How do you use em in a sentence?
E invites em to consider how ey represent emselves^([sic]), and in so doing, e focuses eir attention on the ethics that make human relations possible.
What part of speech is em?
Em can be a noun, a pronoun, an interjection or an adjective.
How do you pronounce em?
Em is pronounced /ˈɛm/.
What is the plural of em?
The plural of em is ems.

Words near em in the dictionary

  1. Elzingas
  2. Elzy
  3. Elzys
  4. Elâzığ
  5. elæon
  6. em
  7. em dash
  8. em dashes
  9. em quad
  10. em quads
  11. em rule

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: em (page history and authors); EM (page history and authors); Em (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-em.ogg.

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