Word.ws English Dictionary

tam

/tæm/

tam is the clipping of tam o'shanter.

Meaning of tam o'shanter

Noun

tam o'shanter (plural tam o'shanters)

  1. A type of woolen hat developed in Scotland; a toorie bunnet.
    Synonyms:
    Scotch cap, tam, tammy

Noun (1)

tam (plural tams)

  1. Synonym of picul, a unit of weight, particularly in Cantonese contexts.
    Synonyms:
    picul

Proper noun (1) capitalized: TAM

TAM

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Tamaulipas: a state of Mexico.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Transantarctic Mountains: a mountain range in Antarctica.

Noun (2) capitalized: TAM

TAM (countable and uncountable, plural TAMs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism, uncountable) Initialism of tense, aspect, and mood.
    • […] then it would make sense to view Australian past irrealises as TAM forms combining a modal stative predicate (conveying e.g. a capacity, expectation, or desire state) with a past imperfective content.2023, Kasia M. Jaszczolt, Understanding Human Time, page 170
    Synonyms:
    TMA
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of total addressable/available market.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of technology acceptance model.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Tam

Tam (plural Tams)

  1. A diminutive of the female given name Tamara.
  2. A diminutive of the female given name Tamsin.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Tam

Tam (plural Tams)

  1. A surname.

Synonyms of tam

Forms of tam

Noun
pluraltams
pluralTAMs
Proper noun
pluralTams

Origin of tam

Ellipsis of tam o'shanter.

From the Cantonese pronunciation of 擔 /担.

Borrowed from Cantonese 譚／谭 (taam4), Cantonese 談／谈 (taam4), etc.

Phrases with tam

Questions about tam

What does tam mean?
Tam means synonym of picul, a unit of weight, particularly in Cantonese contexts.
What is tam the clipping of?
Tam is the clipping of tam o'shanter.
What part of speech is tam?
Tam can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce tam?
Tam is pronounced /tæm/.
What is the plural of tam?
The plural of tam is tams.

Words near tam in the dictionary

  1. Talysarn
  2. Talysh
  3. Talyshes
  4. Talyshi
  5. Talywain
  6. tam
  7. tam o'shanter
  8. tam o'shanters
  9. tam-o'-shanter
  10. tam-o'-shanters
  11. tam-tam

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tam (page history and authors); TAM (page history and authors); Tam (page history and authors); tam o'shanter (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tam.wav.

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