Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use hum in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb, interjection

Hum means a hummed tune, i.e. created orally with lips closed. Example: “They could hear a hum coming from the kitchen and found the dishwasher on.”

Examples of hum by meaning

nounAn often indistinct sound resembling human humming.

  • They could hear a hum coming from the kitchen and found the dishwasher on.

nounA phenomenon, or collection of phenomena, involving widespread reports of a persistent and invasive low-frequency...

  • And yet, "the hum" remains an unsolved case.2011 June 13, “Who, What, Why: Why is 'the hum' such a mystery?”, in BBC News

verbTo make a sound from the vocal cords without pronouncing any real words, with one's lips closed.

  • We are humming happily along with the music.

verbTo express by humming.

  • to hum a tune
  • The team hummed “We Shall Overcome” as they came back onto the field after the break.

verbTo drone like certain insects naturally do in motion, or sounding similarly.

  • Jacob was helping himself to jam; the postman was talking to Rebecca in the kitchen; there was a bee humming at the yellow flower which nodded at the open window.1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC...

verbTo buzz, be busily active like a beehive.

  • The streets were humming with activity.

verbTo reek, smell bad.

  • This room really hums — have you ever tried spring cleaning, mate?

interjectionSynonym of um: a noise indicating doubt, uncertainty, &c.

  • They were both, hum, “put out” themselves.1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 19

More sentences with hum

  • “Dum de dum, dum de dum”, he hummed as he sauntered down the road.From the entry de
  • We hummed and hawed before finally deciding to buy this house.From the entry hum and haw
  • The fluorescents hummed day and night.From the entry fluorescent
  • In your face!” “Last time I checked, that was very lame.” (humming) “Why would you dance?2020 August 27, Ann Kim, “Moist Vessel” (3:53 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 1, episode 4, spoken by Beckett Mariner…. From the entry danceable
  • Angel hummed, their gaze shifting from him to the plate of manju sitting on the bench.2020, Naomi Aoki, Deadly Game, →ISBN. From the entry manju
  • Next she began making humming noises in an ear-achingly high-pitched tone.2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], “The Smell of Old Books”, in Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books…. From the entry ear-achingly
  • Every tree hummed, and furry bees buzzled and flew, in and out, from flower to flower.2015, Jamie Alan Belanger, D.L. Harvey, Shelli-Jo Pelletier, Scribings, Vol 5: Inversions. From the entry buzzle
  • As she hummed, the hour of lead-time they had on Dirk slipped by with her momishness.2015, Robin Parrish, K.C. Neal, Aaron Patterson, The 'Naturals: Season One -- Episodes 13-16. From the entry momishness
  • Anyway, Eric kept humming some dueling banjos song and talking about people who marry their first cousins.2014, Pamela Fagan Hutchins, Hot Flashes and Half Ironmans, →ISBN. From the entry dueling banjos
  • But it also kept the economic engine humming by ensuring the availability of plentiful cheap labour.2013 July 27, “Penury portrait”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8846. From the entry mercantilist
  • It wasn't anything someone could hear, just an intense humming that sizzled all over.2012, Tony Bertauski, Halfskin: A Technothriller, →ISBN. From the entry buzzie
  • I rub my finger around the rim of the goblet until it hums its menacing tone.2012 August 7, F. J. Lennon, Devil's Gate: A Kane Pryce Novel, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 113. From the entry ectometer
  • A last bee, still stockpiling pollen, hums hotly against this Octobral creep of cold.2008, George Elliott Clarke, Blues and Bliss: The Poetry of George Elliott Clarke, page 48. From the entry Octobral
  • Nonalphabetized sounds include: sighing, laughing, weeping, foot tapping, drumming fingers, whistling, humming, booing, coughing.2006, Arthur O. Roberts, Messengers of God. From the entry nonalphabetized
  • They gather one by one, trickling into the shady courtyard, the familiar hum of Mass.2005 June 9, Michael M. Grynbaum, “An Entryway That Eats Together Stays Together”, in The Harvard Crimson, archived from the original on…. From the entry brick
  • The neighboring Wing On mill under Chinese owners continued to hum.[2001, Donald A. Jordan, “The Last Straw at Shanghai”, in China's Trial by Fire: The Shanghai War of 1932, Ann Arbor: University of…. From the entry Wusong
  • Now I hear the humming of a humblebird coming, hovering, fading, returning and passing me by.1999, Leo Vroman, Details, Querido, →ISBN, page 69. From the entry humblebird
  • An hour and a half of now-revelrous, now-subdued celebration hummed along with admirable energy.1984, Jim Moorhead, "‘Superstar’ Company Acquits Itself Well," St. Petersburg Independent, 7 Feb., p. 6B (retrieved 21 Sep. 2009). From the entry revelrous
  • The smaller a town the more richly it hums with gossip.1980, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 2, in Waiting for the Barbarians, Penguin, published 1982, page 32. From the entry gossip
  • I found myself humming tunes that one might not rightfully call tunes.1977 August 13, Jim Marko, “Swados' Rare and Moving Nightclub Cantata”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 6, page 11. From the entry swatch
  • She may give an alarm: a hum made by the beating of her wings.1954 June, Gardner Soule, “How to fight mosquitoes”, in Popular Science, volume 164, number 6, New York, N.Y.: Popular Science Publishing…. From the entry night-biter
  • There is a pleasant smell of cooking about, and a hum of compact and contented life.1930 July, John Buchan, “Portaway—Red Davie”, in Castle Gay, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company; Cambridge, Mass.…. From the entry burghal
  • And then, above the hum of the roadside, rose the voice of the great guns.1916, John Buchan, Greenmantle. From the entry rafale
  • Far overhead the echoes of his voice hummed on awhile among the cedarn rafters.1910, Lord Dunsany, “In Zaccarath”, in A Dreamer’s Tales,, London: George Allen, page 221. From the entry cedarn
  • A concourse of living beings sent the hum of their activity into the night.1908, Algernon Blackwood, Ancient Sorceries. From the entry cheeping
  • With the economy humming and the stock market near record highs, the “apes” are back—and “in full-on risk mode.”2025 August 8, “DORKs: The return of ‘meme stock’ mania”, in Week, volume 25, number 1247, via EBSCOhost, →ISSN, page 33. From the entry ape
  • Here, the area was humming with activity.2025 February 19, Mike Lewis, “Tragedy at Moorgate”, in RAIL, number 1029, page 57, about the Moorgate tube crash. From the entry cordon off
  • Cousin-Brother-in-Law comes out humming a seventies Nigerian Afrobeat hit.2018, Tsitsi Dangarembga, This Mournable Body, Faber & Faber (2020), page 166. From the entry afrobeat
  • His desire to consolidate control however may not help his plans to keep the Middle Kingdom’s economic engine humming.2017 October 26, Jennifer Saba, “Breakingviews - Viewsroom: China's leader cements his power”, in Reuters, archived from the original on…. From the entry Middle Kingdom
  • Amid the noisy mommick, she can sense his humming presence.2010, Julianna Baggott, The Madam: A Novel, →ISBN, page 21. From the entry mommick
  • L.E.D.’s are also more resistant to vibration than incandescents or screw-in fluorescent bulbs, and do not flicker or hum.2007 March 1, Matthew L. Wald, “Room to Improve”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2017. From the entry incandescent

Meaning of hum

  1. noun A hummed tune, i.e. created orally with lips closed.
  2. noun An often indistinct sound resembling human humming.
  3. noun Busy activity, like the buzz of a beehive.

Full definition of hum

Questions about hum in a sentence

How do you use hum in a sentence?
Hum is used as a noun, verb and interjection. For example: “They could hear a hum coming from the kitchen and found the dishwasher on.”
What is a short sentence with hum?
“to hum a tune”
What does hum mean?
Hum means a hummed tune, i.e. created orally with lips closed.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hum (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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