num
/nʌm/
num is the past participle of nim.
num is the abbreviation of number.
num is the abbreviation of numeral.
Meaning of nim
Verb
nim (third-person singular simple present nims, present participle nimming, simple past nam or nimmed, past participle num or nimmed)
- To take or seize.
- Ich cham a Cornysche man, al[e] che can brew; […] Nym me a quart of ale, that iche may it of sup.1547 (original; printed 1870), Andrew Boorde, The First Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, page 122
- To filch, steal, pilfer.
- They'll question Mars, and, by his look,
Detect who 'twas that nimm'd a cloak;1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 1
- They'll question Mars, and, by his look,
- To walk with short, quick strides; trip along.
- The old lady does nim along.1856, Thompson, Hist. Boston, page 716, quoted in 1903, Joseph Wright, The English Dialect Dictionary: M-Q, page 273
Meaning of number
Noun
number (countable and uncountable, plural numbers)
- Quantity of countable things.
- Any number of people can be reading from a given repository at a time.
- An abstract entity used to describe quantity.
- Zero, one, −1, 2.5, and pi are all numbers.
- A numeral: a symbol for a non-negative integer.
- The number 8 is usually made with a single stroke.
- An element of one of several sets: natural numbers, integers, rational numbers, real numbers, complex numbers, and sometimes extensions such as hypercomplex numbers, etc.
- The equation e#123;i#92;pi#125;#43;1#61;0 includes the most important numbers: 1, 0, #92;pi, i, and e.
- Indicating the position of something in a list or sequence. Abbreviations: No or No., no or no. (in each case, sometimes written with a superscript "o", like Nº or №). The symbol "#" is also used in this manner.
- Horse number 5 won the race.
- A sequence of digits and letters used to register people, automobiles, and various other items.
- Her passport number is C01X864TN.
Interjection
- Used to denote eating, or enjoyment of eating.
- Speaking from a microphone in the audience, a woman in her 20s said she was impressed with the trailer because it shows off Mr. Pattinson’s back muscles. “I think I can speak for all of us when I say num, num, num,” she said to screams. (Mr. Pattinson looked mortified.)2011 July 22, Brooks Barnes, “Vampires Meet Auteurs at Fan Fest”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2021
Proper noun capitalized: NUM
NUM
- Initialism of National Union of Mineworkers.
Forms of num
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | nums |
| alternative form | num. |
| Interjection | |
| alternative form | nom |
Origin of num
Inflection of nim.
Shortening of number.
Likely onomatopoeic.
Words formed from num
Phrases with num
Words that rhyme with num
Questions about num
- What does num mean?
- Num means used to denote eating, or enjoyment of eating.
- What is num the past participle of?
- Num is the past participle of nim.
- What part of speech is num?
- Num can be an interjection or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce num?
- Num is pronounced /nʌm/.
Words near num in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: num (page history and authors); NUM (page history and authors); nim (page history and authors); number (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:
Cite this entry: “num.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/num. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.