Word.ws English Dictionary

sam

/sæm/UK/ˈsæm/

sam verb: to assemble.

Verb

sam (third-person singular simple present sams, present participle samming, simple past and past participle sammed)

  1. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To assemble.
  2. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To bring together; join (in marriage, friendship, love, etc.).
  3. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To bring together; collect; put in order; arrange.
    • I sammed it up for ye1905, Keighley Snowden, Princess Joyce
  4. (UK, dialectal, intransitive) To assemble; come together.
  5. (UK, dialectal, transitive) To coagulate; curdle (milk).

Adverb

sam (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) Together
    • Now are they saints all in that city sam.1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • All Sam the souldiers then replied.a. 1600, The Battle of Floddon Field

Adjective

sam (not comparable)

  1. (dialectal) Half or imperfectly done.
  2. Half-heated.

Noun (1)

sam (plural sams)

  1. (slang) Federal narcotics agent.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Sam

Sam (plural Sams)

  1. A diminutive of the male given names Samuel and Samson.
    • While the plane is “perfectly capable” of making the trip without these modifications, Zara’s father Sam Rutherford says these changes have given both him and Zara an extra sense of security.2021 August 18, Rebecca Cairns, “This teenage aviator hopes to be the youngest woman to fly solo around the world”, in CNN
  2. A diminutive of the female given name Samantha.
  3. A surname from Cantonese, a romanization of 岑 (sam⁴) or 沈 (cam⁴ / zam³).
  4. A town in Alibori department, Benin.
  5. A town in Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso.
  6. A town in Bourzanga department, Bam, Burkina Faso.
  7. A village in Kongoussi department, Bam, Burkina Faso.
  8. A Trans-New Guinea language of Papua New Guinea.
  9. A surname from Khmer
  10. (Ireland, informal) The Sam Maguire Cup awarded to the All-Ireland GAA football winning team.

Noun (2) capitalized: Sam

Sam (plural Sams)

  1. (UK, informal) Synonym of Dicky Sam (“a man from Liverpool”)
    Synonyms:
    Dicky Sam

Proper noun (2) capitalized: SAM

SAM

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Sample Analysis at Mars (a scientific instrument of the Mars Science Laboratory on board the Curiosity rover on Mars.)

Noun (3) capitalized: SAM

SAM (plural SAMs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of surface-to-air missile.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of self-assembled monolayer.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of systolic anterior motion.
  4. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of single abstract method.
    • A SAM conversion occurs when Java converts the SAM interface into functional code.2020, Barry Burd, John Paul Mueller, Android Application Development All-in-One For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 213
  5. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of split attraction model.
    • The SAM is a way of deliberately de-coupling sex and romance.2022, Eris Young, Ace Voices: What it Means to Be Asexual, Aromantic, Demi or Grey-Ace, page 167
    • Now before anyone can excuse me of making this up or saying that the SAM is just another “modern” (therefore “uselessly millennial”) invention, the idea of distinguishing orientations is actually a concept that can trace its origins further back in history.2023, Michele Kirichanskaya, Ace Notes: Tips and Tricks on Existing in an Allo World, page 94
  6. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of shared appreciation mortgage.
  7. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of smartass masochist; a brat.
    • Sexy dyke seeks seasoned top to spice up my play life. Interested? Think you have what it takes to tame a novice SAM? Write me at GCN Box 5451991 February 4, “Butch In The Streets.... (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 28, page 13
  8. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of serviceable addressable/available market.

sam meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

sam in Hindi

सैम

sam in Tamil

சாம்

sam in Urdu

سام, سیم

sam in Bengali

স্যামের কাছে, সামের কাছে
More languagesFewer languages
sam in Telugu
సామ్కు, సామ్
sam in Malayalam
സാമിനോട്, സാമിനോടു
sam in Kannada
ಸ್ಯಾಮ್
sam in Punjabi
ਸੈਮ, ਸੈੱਮ
sam in Gujarati
સેમને, સેમ
sam in Odia
ସାମଙ୍କୁ, ସାମକୁ

Examples of sam in a sentence

  • Sam and his friends will never forget the happy memories of the field trip to France.
  • Sam unwrapped the sandwich and took a healthy bite out of the middle.
  • Sam is a real footy, he's always watching it on TV and talking about it.

All 40 example sentences with sam

Synonyms of sam

Forms of sam

Verb
third-person singular presentsams
present participlesamming
past participlesammed
pastsammed
alternative formsamen
Noun
pluralsams
pluralSams
pluralSAMs
Proper noun
pluralSams

Origin of sam

From Middle English sammen, samnen, from Old English samnian, ġesamnian (“to collect, assemble, bring together, gather, join, unite, compose, meet, glean”), from Proto-West Germanic *samnōn, from Proto-Germanic *samnōną (“to gather”), from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Cognate with Dutch zamelen (“to collect”), German sammeln (“to collect, gather”), Swedish samla (“to gather, collect”), Icelandic samna (“to gather, collect”). More at same.

From Middle English sām (“together”), from Old English samen (“together”), from Proto-West Germanic *saman, from Proto-Germanic *samanai (“together”), from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“together, one”).

From Middle English sam- (prefix), from Old English sam-, from Proto-Germanic *sēmi- (“half”), from Proto-Indo-European *sēmi- (“half”). Related to semi- (via Latin).

Words formed from sam

Phrases with sam

7 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with sam

47 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sam

What does sam mean?
Sam means to assemble.
What is sam in Hindi?
Sam in Hindi is सैम. See Sam meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is sam?
Sam can be a verb, an adverb, an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce sam?
Sam is pronounced /sæm/.
What is the past tense of sam?
The past tense of sam is sammed.

Words near sam in the dictionary

  1. Salzwedels
  2. salæratus
  3. Salé
  4. saléeite
  5. saléeites
  6. sam
  7. Sam Brown belt
  8. Sam Browne belt
  9. Sam Browne belts
  10. Sam Hell
  11. Sam Hill

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sam (page history and authors); Sam (page history and authors); SAM (page history and authors); sam (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sam (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sam (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sam (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sam (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sam (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sam (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sam (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sam (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sam (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: en-us-Sam.ogg.

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