em

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• /ɛ(ː)m/
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• ĕm
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• /ˈɛm/
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• US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• rhymes with -ɛm
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• /ɛm/
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• CMU ARPABET: EH1 M Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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Onomatopoeic. Compare um.

Attested since 1808. In typography, the em is named after the em quadrat (later called em quad), from m quadrat, a metal type used in letterpress typesetting, which is as wide as the point size of the font.

From Russian эм (em), Ukrainian ем (em), etc.

See 'em.

Coined by Christine M. Elverson by removing the "th" from them, perhaps influenced by the pre-existing em/'em, now often perceived as apheretic forms of them (though originally unrelated).

50 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Alabama: ìmka — name of the letter M, m
• Arabic: إِم (ʔem) — name of the letter M, m
• Asturian: eme — name of the letter M, m
• Bengali: এম (em) — name of the letter M, m
• Bulgarian: ем (em) — name of the letter M, m
• Catalan: ema — name of the letter M, m
• Dutch: em — name of the letter M, m
• Esperanto: mo — name of the letter M, m
• Finnish: äm — name of the letter M, m
• Finnish: ämmä — name of the letter M, m
• French: emme — name of the letter M, m
• Galician: eme — name of the letter M, m
• Greek: έμ (ém) — name of the letter M, m
• Hawaiian: mū — name of the letter M, m
• Hindi: एम् (em) — name of the letter M, m
• Hindi: एम (em) — name of the letter M, m
• Ido: me — name of the letter M, m
• Irish: eim — name of the letter M, m
• Irish: muin — name of the letter M, m
• Italian: emme — name of the letter M, m
• Japanese: エム (emu) — name of the letter M, m
• Korean: 엠 (em) — name of the letter M, m
• Latin: em — name of the letter M, m
• Malay: em — name of the letter M, m
• Marathi: एम (em) — name of the letter M, m
• Occitan: èma — name of the letter M, m
• Persian: ام (em) — name of the letter M, m
• Polish: em — name of the letter M, m
• Portuguese: eme — name of the letter M, m
• Russian: эм (em) — name of the letter M, m
• Spanish: eme — name of the letter M, m
• Tagalog: em — name of the letter M, m
• Thai: เอ็ม (em) — name of the letter M, m
• Turkish: me — name of the letter M, m
• Ukrainian: ем (em) — name of the letter M, m
• Vietnamese: em-mờ — name of the letter M, m
• Vietnamese: em — name of the letter M, m
• Vietnamese: mờ — name of the letter M, m
• Welsh: em — name of the letter M, m
• Bulgarian: ем (em) — typographic unit
• Cherokee: ᎡᎻ (emi) — typographic unit
• Finnish: neliö — typographic unit
• Finnish: em — typographic unit
• French: cadratin — typographic unit
• Hungarian: betűnégyzet — typographic unit
• Hungarian: kvirt — typographic unit
• Spanish: cuadratín — typographic unit
• Swedish: fyrkant — typographic unit
• Swedish: fyrkantsvärde — typographic unit
• Swedish: Åp-höjd — typographic unit