om
/ɒm/US/oʊm/
om noun: a sacred, mystical syllable used in prayer and meditation.
Noun (1)
om (plural oms)
- A sacred, mystical syllable used in prayer and meditation.
- In fact it sounded exactly like the voice of Livia, her vanished sister, and, like her, it was intoning the Aum just as she used once to do at the beginning of her yoga sessions.1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 2004, page 800
- Om is pronounced "a-a-o-o-u-u-m-m" and is repeated slowly for as long as possible.2001 October 20, Hazel Curry, The Guardian
Verb
om (third-person singular simple present oms, present participle omming, simple past and past participle ommed)
- To chant the sacred syllable om.
- Allen Ginsberg omming like a death rattle, his voice ravaged by the days of Hindu chants and gas.1996, Nora Sayre, Sixties Going on Seventies, page 14
- I had to go into church to clear it by chanting the sacred mantra 'Om'. I was omming, loudly and intensely so that the vibration of that sacred mantra would fill every corner.2015, Hilary H. Carter, Number Woman
Proper noun (1) capitalized: OM
OM
Noun (2) capitalized: OM
OM (countable and uncountable, plural OMs)
- Initialism of outer marker.
- Initialism of otitis media.
- Initialism of old measurement.
- Initialism of old man (term of address for a male).
- Games for the harmonics, (children), YL's and XYL's and the OM's, plus free soda for all.1967, CQ: the Radio Amateur's Journal, volume 23, numbers 7-12, page 140
- Synonyms:
- OB
- Initialism of operations manager.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: OM
OM
- Initialism of Olympique de Marseille.
Proper noun (3) capitalized: Om
the Om
om meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
om in Hindi
- sacred syllable
- ॐ om, ओम om
om in Tamil
- sacred syllable
- ஓம் ōm
om in Urdu
- sacred syllable
- اوم om
om in Bengali
- sacred syllable
- ওঁ ō̃
More languagesFewer languages
- om in Telugu
- ఓం ōṁ
- om in Malayalam
- ഓം ōṁ
- om in Kannada
- ಓಂ ōṃ
- om in Punjabi
- ਓਮ
- om in Gujarati
- ૐ oṃ
- om in Odia
- ଓମକୁ
- om in Sanskrit
- ॐ oṃ
- om in Assamese
- ওঁ ü̃
- om in Malay
- ong
- om in Indonesian
- aum
- om in Thai
- โอม oom
- om in Vietnamese
- úm
- om in Myanmar
- ဥုံ
- Dzongkha
- ཨོཾ oṃ
Synonyms of om
Forms of om
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | oms |
| alternative form | aum |
| plural | OMs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | oms |
| present participle | omming |
| past participle | ommed |
| past | ommed |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Om' |
Origin of om
Learned borrowing from Sanskrit ओम् (om) (symbol ॐ (oṃ)). The former (om) is used in both Buddhist and Hindu settings, while the latter (aum) is usually used only in Jain and Hindu settings.
Words formed from om
Phrases with om
Words that rhyme with om
Questions about om
- What does om mean?
- Om means a sacred, mystical syllable used in prayer and meditation.
- What is om in Hindi?
- Om in Hindi is ॐ (om), ओम (om). See Om meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is om?
- Om can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce om?
- Om is pronounced /ɒm/ (UK).
- What is the plural of om?
- The plural of om is oms.
Words near om in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: om (page history and authors); OM (page history and authors); Om (page history and authors); om (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); om (Odia, 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-om.wav.
Cite this entry: “om.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/om. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.