Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

M

M

(ĕm)
.
1.
M, the thirteenth letter of the English alphabet, is a vocal consonant, and from the manner of its formation, is called the labio-nasal consonant. See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 178-180, 242.
The letter M came into English from the Greek, through the Latin, the form of the Greek letter being further derived from the Phœnician, and ultimately, it is believed, from the Egyptian. Etymologically M is related to n, in lime, linden; emmet, ant; also to b.
M is readily followed by b and p. the position of the lips in the formation of both letters being the same. The relation of b and m is the same as that of d and t to n. and that of g and k to ng .
2.
As a numeral, M stands for one thousand, both in English and Latin.

M

,
Noun.
1.
(Print.)
A quadrat, the face or top of which is a perfect square; also, the size of such a square in any given size of type, used as the unit of measurement for that type: 500 m’s of pica would be a piece of matter whose length and breadth in pica m's multiplied together produce that number.
[Written also
em
.]
2.
(law)
A brand or stigma, having the shape of an M, formerly impressed on one convicted of manslaughter and admitted to the benefit of clergy.
M roof
(Arch.)
,
a kind of roof formed by the junction of two common roofs with a valley between them, so that the section resembles the letter M.

Webster 1828 Edition

M

M

is the thirteenth letter of the English Alphabet, and a labial articulation, formed by a compression of the lips. It is called a semi-vowel, as the articulation or compression of the lips is accompanied with a humming sound through the nose, which constitutes a difference between this letter and b. Its sound is uniform; as in man, time, rim.

M

is a numeral letter, and among the ancients stood for a thousand; a use which is retained by the moderns. With a dash or stroke over it, it stands for a thousand times a thousand, or a million.
As an abbreviation, M stands for Marcus, Martius, Manlius or Mutius.

Definition 2024

M

M


M U+004D, M
LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M
← L
[U+004C] 		Basic Latin N →
[U+004E]
See also: Appendix:Variations of "m", М, Μ, Ϻ, and ϻ

Translingual

Letter

M upper case (lower case m)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.

See also

Symbol

M

  1. mega-
  2. (astronomy): Messier number. Objects in Charles Messier's catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters in 1774 are numbered, and the letter M (for Messier) is prepended to these numbers, as in M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy) or M13 (the globular cluster in Hercules).
  3. (biochemistry) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for methionine
  4. (analysis) a generic manifold
  5. (chemistry) molar (one mole of substance per litre of solute)
  6. (group theory) monster group

Usage notes

Because of the potential for confusion, the abbreviation for unit "molar" is usually written in italics (M) or in small caps (ᴍ).

Symbol

M

  1. The Roman numeral M (1,000)

See also

Other representations of M:

English

Letter

M ‎(upper case, lower case m, plural Ms or M's)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the English alphabet, called em and written in the Latin script.

See also

Number

M ‎(upper case, lower case m)

  1. The ordinal number thirteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called em and written in the Latin script.

Noun

M ‎(countable and uncountable, plural Ms)

  1. Monsieur
  2. male
  3. Mother
  4. mature
  5. nautical mile
  6. (entomology) media
  7. (size) Medium
  8. (cricket, in batting figures) the number of minutes a player spent at the crease
  9. (cricket, in bowling figures) the number of maiden overs bowled

Coordinate terms

  • (gender): F, X

Proper noun

M

  1. Monday
  2. (US, roadway) Michigan. Usage note: this designation is usually used only within Michigan.

American Sign Language

Letter

‎(Stokoe M)

  1. The letter M

Azeri

Letter

M upper case (lower case m)

  1. The nineteenth letter of the Azeri alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /ɛm/

Letter

M ‎(capital, lowercase m)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Dutch alphabet.

See also

  • Previous letter: L
  • Next letter: N

Esperanto

Letter

M ‎(upper case, lower case m)

  1. The sixteenth letter of the Esperanto alphabet, called mo and written in the Latin script.

See also

Abbreviation

M

  1. (text messaging) Abbreviation of mi ‎(“me, I”).

Finnish

Letter

M ‎(upper case, lower case m)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Finnish alphabet, called äm or em and written in the Latin script.

See also

Abbreviation

M

  1. magna cum laude approbatur

French

Pronunciation

Letter

M ‎(lowercase m)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the French alphabet, preceded by L and followed by N.

German

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ʔɛm/

Letter

M ‎(upper case, lower case m)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the German alphabet.

Ido

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /m/

Letter

M ‎(lower case m)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Ido alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Italian

Pronunciation

  • (name of letter) IPA(key): /ˈɛmme/
  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /m/

Letter

M m, f ‎(invariable, lower case m)

  1. The eleventh letter of the Italian alphabet, called emme and written in the Latin script.

Symbol

M

  1. down with

Antonyms

  • W (up with)

See also

Latvian

Etymology

Proposed in 1908 as part of the new Latvian spelling by the scientific commission headed by K. Mīlenbahs, which was accepted and began to be taught in schools in 1909. Prior to that, Latvian had been written in German Fraktur, and sporadically in Cyrillic.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [m]

Letter

M

M ‎(upper case, lower case m)

  1. The twentieth letter of the Latvian alphabet, called em and written in the Latin script.

See also

Malay

Pronunciation

  • (Name of letter) IPA(key): [ɛm]
  • (Phoneme) IPA(key): [m]

Letter

M

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Portuguese

Letter

M ‎(upper case, lower case m)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Portuguese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Romanian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /me/, /em/

Letter

M (capital, lowercase m)

  1. The sixteenth letter of the Romanian alphabet representing the phoneme /m/. Preceded by L and followed by N.

Saanich

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /m/, /mʼ/

Letter

M

  1. The twentieth letter of the Saanich alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Skolt Sami

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /m/

Letter

M ‎(lower case m)

  1. The twenty-first letter of the Skolt Sami alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Slovene

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛm/

Letter

M ‎(capital, lowercase m)

  1. The 14th letter of the Slovene alphabet. Preceded by L and followed by N.

Somali

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /m/
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /miːm/

Letter

M upper case (lower case m)

  1. The eighteenth letter of the Somali alphabet, called miim and written in the Latin script.

Usage notes

  1. The eighteenth letter of the Somali alphabet, which follows Arabic abjad order. It is preceded by L and followed by N.

See also

Spanish

Letter

M ‎(upper case, lower case m)

  1. The 13th letter of the Spanish alphabet.

Turkish

Letter

M ‎(upper case, lower case m)

  1. The sixteenth letter of the Turkish alphabet, called me and written in the Latin script.

See also

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

  • (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [ʔɛ˧˧ məːɰ˨˩/, /ʔɛm˧˧ məːɰ˨˩/, /məːɰ˨˩]
  • (Huế) IPA(key): [ʔɛ˧˧ məːɰ˧˧/, /ʔɛm˧˧ məːɰ˧˧/, /məːɰ˧˧]
  • (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA(key): [ʔɛ˧˥ məːɰ˨˩/, /ʔɛm˧˥ məːɰ˨˩/, /məːɰ˨˩]
  • Phonetic: e mờ, em mờ, mờ

Letter

M ‎(upper case, lower case m)

  1. The fifteenth letter of the Vietnamese alphabet, called e-mờ, em-mờ or mờ and written in the Latin script.

See also

m

m


m U+006D, m
LATIN SMALL LETTER M
← l
[U+006C] 		Basic Latin n →
[U+006E]
See also: Appendix:Variations of "m"

Translingual

Etymology 1

Modification of capital letter M, from Ancient Greek letter Μ ‎(M, “Mu”).

Letter

m lower case (upper case M)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.

See also

Etymology 2

Various abbreviations.

Pronunciation

Symbol

m

  1. meter (metre), the unit of length in the International System of Units
  2. milli-
  3. (phonetics) used in the International Phonetic Alphabet and in several romanization systems of non-Latin scripts to represent the bilabial nasal (/m/), including Cyrillic м ‎(m, “em”), the beginning of various kana including ま ‎(ma), and Korean jamo ㅁ ‎(m, “mieum”).
  4. mass
  5. month or months

Etymology 3

From upper case roman numeral M (1000), an alteration of ⋈, from ∞, an alteration of ↀ, an alteration of Ⓧ, from encircling X (the roman numeral for ten) to indicate the hundredth ten.

Alternative forms

Numeral

m ‎(lower case roman numeral, upper case M)

  1. (Roman numerals) cardinal number one thousand (1000)
Synonyms
  • CIƆ

See also

Other representations of M:

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛm/

Letter

m ‎(lower case, upper case M, plural m's)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the English alphabet, called em and written in the Latin script.
See also

Number

m ‎(lower case, upper case M)

  1. The ordinal number thirteenth, derived from this letter of the English alphabet, called em and written in the Latin script.

Etymology 2

Abbreviation

m

  1. metre
  2. (grammar) masculine
  3. mile
  4. milli
  5. million
    • 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:
      The final started with £85m worth of striking talent on the bench as Carroll was a Liverpool substitute and Chelsea's Fernando Torres missed out on a starting place against his former club.
  6. minute
    • 1908, Francis Ernest Lloyd, The Physiology of Stomata (Carnegie Institution of Washington), page 83:
      Another instance: 2h28m p. m., 10 micra; 3h08m p. m., 0 micra; irrigated with water: 3h09m p. m., 4 micra.
  7. (knitting) make
    • 2011, Kristi Porter, Knitting Patterns For Dummies (page 232)
      Row 1 (RS): Kfb, knit to marker A, slip marker A, knit to marker B (there are no sts to knit between markers A and B in Row 1), m1, slip marker B, k1, slip marker B, m1, […]
Translations

See also

Azeri

Letter

m lower case (upper case M)

  1. The nineteenth letter of the Azeri alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -ɛm
  • (letter name): IPA(key): /ɛm/

Letter

m ‎(lower case, upper case M)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Dutch alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

  • Previous letter: l
  • Next letter: n

See also

Egyptian

Pronunciation

  • (Reconstructed) IPA(key): /ma/[1]

Preposition

m

  1. in,
  2. (of time) in, for, during
  3. (with verbs of motion) into, out of
  4. (of material) made of
  5. by means of
  6. in the state of, as, is

Usage notes

This preposition is often used, with the sixth definition here to indicate temporary identity, so for example s m 3hw (the man is a poor man), implies that this a temporary, rather than an eternal state. Egyptian generally has an expansive view of what counts as a temporary identity, compared to English.

Alternative hieroglyphic writings:

im
m

Inflection

Adverbial form jm
i m

References

Allen, Middle Egyptian
Faulkner, Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian

  1. ↑ 2007, Gábor Takács, Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian, ISBN 9789004164123

Esperanto

Pronunciation

Letter

m ‎(lower case, upper case M)

  1. The sixteenth letter of the Esperanto alphabet, called mo and written in the Latin script.

See also

Etulo

Pronoun

ḿ

  1. I, first-person singular pronoun
    ḿ wēnî — I drink water
    ḿ wēnī — I drank water

References

  • Rose-Juliet Anyanwu, Fundamentals of Phonetics, Phonology and Tonology (2008)

Faroese

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /m/

Letter

m ‎(upper case M)

  1. The fifteenth letter of the Faroese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

French

Letter

m ‎(lower case, upper case M)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the French alphabet, written in the Latin script.
    • 1837, Louis Viardot, L’Ingénieux Hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manchefr.Wikisource, translation of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Chapter III:
      L’aube du jour commençait à poindre quand don Quichotte sortit de l’hôtellerie, si content, si glorieux, si plein de ravissement de se voir armé chevalier, que sa joie en faisait tressaillir jusqu’aux sangles de son cheval.
      The dawn of the day was beginning to break when Don Quixote left the inn, so content, so glorious, so full of ravishment of seeing himself armed a knight, that his joy made him tremble all the way to the girths of his horse.

Haitian Creole

Etymology

Contraction of mwen, from French moi.

Pronoun

m

  1. Contraction of mwen.

Hungarian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈmeːtɛr]

Noun

m ‎(plural m-ek)

  1. Abbreviation of méter.

Declension

Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)
singular plural
nominative m m-ek
accusative m-t m-eket
dative m-nek m-eknek
instrumental m-rel m-ekkel
causal-final m-ért m-ekért
translative m-ré m-ekké
terminative m-ig m-ekig
essive-formal m-ként m-ekként
essive-modal — —
inessive m-ben m-ekben
superessive m-en m-eken
adessive m-nél m-eknél
illative m-be m-ekbe
sublative m-re m-ekre
allative m-hez m-ekhez
elative m-ből m-ekből
delative m-ről m-ekről
ablative m-től m-ektől
Possessive forms of m
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. m-em m-eim
2nd person sing. m-ed m-eid
3rd person sing. m-e m-ei
1st person plural m-ünk m-eink
2nd person plural m-etek m-eitek
3rd person plural m-ük m-eik

Ido

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /m/

Letter

m ‎(upper case M)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Ido alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Italian

Noun

m m, f ‎(invariable)

  1. See under M

Latin

Letter

m

  1. The letter of the Latin alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Abbreviation

m

  1. Marcus

References

  • M in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
  • m in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • m in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray

Latvian

Etymology

Proposed in 1908 as part of the new Latvian spelling by the scientific commission headed by K. Mīlenbahs, which was accepted and began to be taught in schools in 1909. Prior to that, Latvian had been written in German Fraktur, and sporadically in Cyrillic.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [m]

Letter

M

m ‎(lower case, upper case M)

  1. The twentieth letter of the Latvian alphabet, called em and written in the Latin script.

See also

Livonian

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /m/

Letter

m ‎(upper case M)

  1. The nineteenth letter of the Livonian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Malay

Letter

m ‎(lower case, upper case M)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Malay alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Mandarin

Romanization

m

  1. Nonstandard spelling of ḿ.
  2. Nonstandard spelling of m̀.

Usage notes

  • English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Mandinka

Pronoun

m

  1. I, me (personal pronoun)
    a m busa — he/she struck me.

See also

Norwegian

Pronunciation

  • (letter name): IPA(key): /emː/, /ɛmː/
  • (phoneme): IPA(key): /m/

Letter

m

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Norwegian alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Portuguese

Pronunciation

Letter

m ‎(upper case M, lower case b)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Portuguese alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Romanian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /me/, /em/

Letter

m ‎(lower case, upper case M)

  1. The sixteenth letter of the Romanian alphabet, written in the Latin script. Representing the phoneme /m/. Preceded by l and followed by n.

Serbo-Croatian

Alternative forms

  • (uppercase): M

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /m/

Letter

m ‎(Cyrillic spelling м)

  1. The 18th letter of the Serbo-Croatian Latin alphabet, preceded by lj and followed by n.

Abbreviation

m ‎(Cyrillic spelling м)

  1. (grammar) masculine gender
  2. meter (unit of length)

Skolt Sami

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /m/

Letter

m ‎(upper case M)

  1. The twenty-first letter of the Skolt Sami alphabet, written in the Latin script.

See also

Spanish

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /m/
  • (letter) IPA(key): /'eme/

Abbreviation

m

  1. Used in SMS for me

Letter

m ‎(lower case, upper case M)

  1. The thirteenth letter of the Spanish alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Swedish

Abbreviation

m

  1. w/, with; Abbreviation of med.
  2. Moderate Party; Abbreviation of Moderaterna.

See also

Turkish

Letter

m ‎(lower case, upper case M)

  1. The sixteenth letter of the Turkish alphabet, called me and written in the Latin script.

See also

Turkmen

Pronunciation

  • (phoneme) IPA(key): /m/

Letter

m ‎(upper case M)

  1. The fifteenth letter of the Turkmen alphabet, called em and written in the Latin script.

See also

ǃKung

Verb

m

  1. eat

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɛm/

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