Link Centre Dictionary

hum

UK/hʌm/ US/häm(˦)/ fairly common informal slang uk
verb (4) noun (3)

verb

1.

sing with closed lips

  • “She hummed a melody”
2.

be noisy with activity

  • “This office is buzzing with activity”
Synonyms
3.

sound with a monotonous hum

Synonyms
4.

make a low continuous sound

  • “The refrigerator is humming”

noun

1.

the state of being or appearing to be actively engaged in an activity

  • “they manifested all the busyness of a pack of beavers”
  • “there is a constant hum of military preparation”
Synonyms
2.
3.

a humming noise

  • “the hum of distant traffic”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English hummen (“to hum, buzz, drone, make a murmuring sound to cover embarrassment”); akin to Dutch hommelen (“to bumble, buzz”), dialectal Dutch hommen (“to buzz, hum”), Middle High German hummen (“to hum”), probably ultimately of imitative origin.

Phrases

  • ho hum
  • hum along
  • hum and ha
  • hum and haw
  • mains hum
  • sixty cycle hum

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.