palm

/pɑm/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

England/pɑːm/

palm noun: any of various evergreen trees from the family Palmae or Arecaceae, which are mainly found in the tropics.

Noun (1)

palm (plural palms)

Any of various evergreen trees from the family Palmae or Arecaceae, which are mainly found in the tropics.

Synonyms:

palm tree
A branch or leaf of the palm, anciently borne or worn as a symbol of victory or rejoicing.
- A great multitude […] stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palmes in their hands.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 7:9
(broadly, figuratively) Triumph; victory.
(scouting) Any of the twenty-three awards that can be earned after obtaining the Eagle Scout rank, but generally only before turning eighteen years old.

Noun (2)

palm (plural palms)

The inner and somewhat concave part of the human hand or other primate hand that extends from the wrist to the bases of the fingers.
- On the boys' palms were handfuls of sand.
- The chiromancer examined my palms first, and eventually had my hands photographed.
Synonyms:

loof

Antonyms:

hardel, backhand
The corresponding part of the forefoot of a nonprimate mammal.
(historical) Synonym of hand, any of various units of length notionally derived from the breadth of the palm, formalized in England as 4 inches and now chiefly used for the height of horses
- He found it to be ninety-five fathoms wide, and five palms deep at a place of average depth1931, Herbert Eugene Bolton, Outpost of Empire: The Story of the Founding of San Francisco
Synonyms:

hand, any of various units of length notionally derived from the breadth of the palm, formalized in England as 4 inches and now chiefly used for the height of horses
(historical) Any of various units of length notionally derived from the length of the palm from the wrist to the base of the fingers.
A metallic disk attached to a strap and worn in the palm of the hand; used to push the needle through the canvas, in sewing sails, etc.
The broad flattened part of an antler, as of a full-grown fallow deer; so called as resembling the palm of the hand with its protruding fingers.
- They watched until the younger bull received a second cut, this one on his flank from a point on the brow palm that would have impaled him if he hadn't jumped out of the way.1999, Dana Stabenow, Hunter's Moon, →ISBN, page 168
The flat inner face of an anchor fluke.

Verb

palm (third-person singular simple present palms, present participle palming, simple past and past participle palmed)

To hold or conceal something in the palm of the hand, e.g., for an act of sleight of hand or to steal something.
To hold something without bending the fingers significantly.
- John palmed the ball.
To move something with the palm of the hand.
- The home side's goalkeeper Asmir Begovic managed to palm the drive on to the post but the sheer pace of the shot forced the ball into the net.2010 December 28, Marc Vesty, “Stoke 0 - 2 Fulham”, in BBC
(intransitive, transitive) To use one's palm as identification to get through a door or security checkpoint.
- I palmed in to work.
- She palmed the door as she talked to the security guard.
(UK, obsolete, slang, transitive) To bribe.
- He never again appeared in the house where practices of this description are carried on every night, and where officers of the police are palmed (bribed) for their forbearance.1845, George Smeeton, Doings in London, page 78

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Palm

Palm (plural Palms)

A surname mainly of Scandinavian origin.

Noun (3) capitalized: Palm

Palm (plural Palms)

(scouting) Alternative letter-case form of palm.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: PALM

PALM

(abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Patent Application Locating and Monitoring.

palm meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

palm in Hindi

inner, concave part of hand: हथेली hathelī

palm in Tamil

inner, concave part of hand: உள்ளங்கை uḷḷaṅkai
to move something with the palm of the hand: தள்ளு taḷḷu

palm in Marathi

inner, concave part of hand: तळहात taḷhāt

palm in Urdu

inner, concave part of hand: ہتھیلی hatheli

More languagesFewer languages

palm in Bengali: করতল korotol
palm in Telugu: అరచేయి aracēyi
palm in Kannada: ತಾಳೆ, ಪಾಮ್, ಅಂಗೈ
palm in Gujarati: હથેલી hathelī
palm in Odia: ପାମ୍
palm in Assamese: হাতৰ তলুৱা hator tolua, কৰতল korotol, তলুৱা tolua
palm in Nepali: हत्केला hatkelā
palm in Pashto: خپړ xapᶕṛ, کف kaf
palm in Tagalog: palad
palm in Arabic: رَاحَة rāḥa, كَفّ kaff
palm in Malay: tapak tangan, telapak tangan
palm in Indonesian: telapak tangan
palm in Persian: کف kaf, هبک
palm in Thai: ฝ่า fàa
palm in Vietnamese: gan bàn tay, lòng bàn tay
palm in Myanmar: ဖဝါး hpa.wa:, လက်ဝါး lak-wa:

Examples of palm in a sentence

[She] flung herself / Down on the great King's couch, and writhed upon it, / And clench'd her fingers till they bit the palm, / And shriek'd out 'traitor' to the unhearing wall, […]1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Elaine”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 179:
The open palm of desire wants everything.1990 October 28, Paul Simon, “Further to Fly”, in The Rhythm of the Saints, Warner Bros.:

All 40 example sentences with palm

Synonyms of palm

palm tree
loof
hand
any of various units of length notionally derived from the breadth of the palm
formalized in England as 4 inches and now chiefly used for the height of horses

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of palm

Forms of palm

Noun
plural	palms
alternative form	Palm
plural	Palms
Verb
third-person singular present	palms
present participle	palming
past participle	palmed
past	palmed
Proper noun
plural	Palms

Plural of palm: palms

Origin of palm

From Middle English palme, from Old English palm, palma (“palm-tree, palm-branch”), from Latin palma (“palm-tree, palm-branch, palm of the hand”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₂meh₂, *pl̥h₂emeh₂ (“palm of the hand”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat”). Cognate with Dutch palm, German Palme, Danish palme, Icelandic pálmur (“palm”).

From Middle English palme, paume, from Old French palme, paulme, paume (“palm of the hand, ball, tennis”), from Latin palma (“palm of the hand, hand-breadth”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₂(e)meh₂ (“palm of the hand”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat”). Doublet of palmo, palma, and pam. Cognate with Ancient Greek παλάμη (palámē, “palm of the hand”), Old English folm (“palm of the hand”), Old Irish lám (“hand”).

From Middle High German palme, balme, related to palm (“palm tree”).

Phrases with palm

132 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with palm

9 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about palm

What does palm mean?: Palm means any of various evergreen trees from the family Palmae or Arecaceae, which are mainly found in the tropics.
What is palm in Hindi?: Palm in Hindi is हथेली (hathelī). See Palm meaning in Hindi.
How do you use palm in a sentence?: [She] flung herself / Down on the great King's couch, and writhed upon it, / And clench'd her fingers till they bit the palm, / And shriek'd out 'traitor' to the unhearing wall, […]
What part of speech is palm?: Palm can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce palm?: Palm is pronounced /pɑːm/ (England).
What is the plural of palm?: The plural of palm is palms.

Words near palm in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: palm (page history and authors); Palm (page history and authors); PALM (page history and authors); palm (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); palm (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: 2026-09-02

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

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