cum

English Online Dictionary. What means cum‎? What does cum mean?

Translingual

Etymology

Clipping of English Cumeral.

Symbol

cum

1. (international standards, obsolete) Former ISO 639-3 language code for Cumeral.

English

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Latin cum (“with”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʌm/, /kʊm/
• Rhymes: -ʌm, -ʊm

Preposition

cum

1. Used in indicating a thing or person which has two or more roles, functions, or natures, or which has changed from one to another.
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:cum.

Usage notes

Also used in some British place names and civil parish names, see table below

Translations

Etymology 2

Variant of come, attested (in the basic sense "come, move from further to nearer, arrive") since Old English. The sexual sense of come is attested since the 1650s. In this sense and spelling, attested from 1970s.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʌm/, enPR: kŭm
• Rhymes: -ʌm
• Homophone: come

Noun

cum (uncountable)

2. (colloquial, often vulgar) Semen.

   Synonyms: jizz, (chiefly UK) spunk, (US) spooge, nut, skeet, junk; see also Thesaurus:semen
3. (colloquial, often vulgar) Female ejaculatory discharge.
4. (colloquial, often vulgar) An ejaculation.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

cum (third-person singular simple present cums, present participle cumming, simple past came or (nonstandard) cummed, past participle come or cum or (nonstandard) cummed)

1. (slang, often vulgar) To have an orgasm, to feel the sensation of an orgasm.

   Synonym: climax

3. (slang, often vulgar) To ejaculate.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:ejaculate
4. Eye dialect spelling of come (“move from further to nearer; arrive”).

Usage notes

Many style guides and editors recommend the spelling come for verb uses (to orgasm/to ejaculate) while strictly allowing the spelling cum for the noun (semen/female ejaculatory discharge). Both spellings are sometimes found in either the noun or verb sense, however. Others prefer to distinguish in formality, using come for any formal usage and cum only in slang, erotic or pornographic contexts.

The past tense and past participle variant cummed is used when the verb is felt as a denominal from the noun rather than a specialized sense of the verb come.

Translations

Etymology 3

Adjective

cum (not comparable)

1. Clipping of cumulative.

Etymology 4

Noun

cum (uncountable)

1. Abbreviation of cubic metre.

References

Anagrams

• CMU, MCU, MUC, UMC

Aromanian

Alternative forms

• cumu

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *quomo, from Latin quōmodo.

Adverb

cum

1. how

Conjunction

cum

1. how

Eastern Cham

Alternative forms

• ꨌꨭꩌ

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /cum/

Verb

cum

1. to kiss
2. to smell (something)

Galician

Noun

cum m (feminine cumha or cuma, masculine plural cums, feminine plural cumhas or cumas)

1. reintegrationist spelling of cun

References

• “cum” in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (2014).

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish cummaid (“fashions, shapes, composes, determines; makes, creates, devises”), from cummae (“act of cutting, carving, hacking, destroying, butchering; act of shaping, fashioning, composing; shape, form, appearance”) (compare modern cuma).

Pronunciation

• (Munster, Galway) IPA^(key): /kuːmˠ/
• (Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /kʊmˠ/

Verb

cum (present analytic cumann, future analytic cumfaidh, verbal noun cumadh, past participle cumtha) (ambitransitive)

1. to form (give shape)
2. to compose (construct by mental labor; to think up)
3. to invent, make up, coin
4. to concoct (contrive something using skill or ingenuity)
5. to manufacture, fabricate (a story, excuse etc.)

Inflection

Mutation

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “cum”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “cummaid”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “cum”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “cum”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025

Latin

Alternative forms

• cũ, ꝯ (abbreviations, Medieval Latin, Renaissance Latin, early modern)
• kom, com (Old Latin)
• -cum (used with pronouns)

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkum]

Etymology 1

From Old Latin com, from Proto-Italic *kom, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“next to, at, with, along”). Cognate with Proto-Germanic *ga- (“co-”), Proto-Slavic *sъ(n) (“with”).

The ablative is from the PIE comitative-instrumental.

Preposition

cum (+ ablative)

1. with, along with

   Titus cum familiā habitat. ― Titus lives with his family.

   magnā cum laude ― with great praise

2. at (denoting a point in time with which an action coincides)

   Mīlitēs cum prīmā lūce vēnērunt. ― The soldiers came at day-break.

3. -fold (with ordinal number)

   cum centēsimō efficere ― to yield a hundredfold

Derived terms

Descendants

Etymology 2

From Old Latin quom, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷóm, accusative of *kʷos, *kʷís. Compare its feminine form quam (as in tum-tam).

Alternative forms

• quom (pre-Classical, Classical Latin)
• quum (post-classical)

Conjunction

cum

1. [with subjunctive]
   1. (causal) when, after [with imperfect subjunctive or pluperfect subjunctive]
   2. because, since
   3. although
2. [with indicative]
   1. (temporal) when, while [with present indicative or perfect indicative]

Usage notes

• In the sense of when, if there is no causal link between the verb in the dependent clause and the verb in the main clause (sometimes called an inverted cum-clause, as the 'main action' of the sentence occurs in the dependent clause), the indicative is used rather than the subjunctive.

  Per viam ambulābāmus cum pugnam vīdimus. [not *vīderīmus]

  We were walking through the street when we saw a fight.

• Often coupled with tum, such that tum X, cum Y means "then X, when Y", and cum X tum Y means "not only X but also Y".

Coordinate terms

• tum

Derived terms

• quomque, cumque
• quondam
• quoniam
• umquam

References

• (preposition) “cum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• (conjunction) “cum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “cum”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "cum", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• cum in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[3], London: Macmillan and Co.

Linngithigh

Numeral

cum

1. three

Manx

Etymology 1

From Old Irish con·gaib. Cognate with Irish coinnigh and Scottish Gaelic cum.

Verb

cum (verbal noun cummal)

1. grip, hold
2. keep, arrest, retain
3. contain
4. live, inhabit
5. celebrate

Etymology 2

From Middle Irish cummaid, a denominative verb from cumma, itself from Old Irish cummae (“shape, form, appearance”).

Verb

cum (verbal noun cummey)

1. plan, devise
2. fabricate, shape, mould
3. indite

Mutation

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kum/

Verb

cum

1. singular imperative of cuman

Old French

Conjunction

cum

1. alternative form of come (“as, like”)

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• ·cumai

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [kuβ̃]

Verb

·cum

1. alternative form of ·cumai, third-person singular present subjunctive prototonic of con·icc

Mutation

References

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: cum

Etymology 1

From contraction of preposition com (“with”) + masculine article um (“a”). Compare Galician cun.

Contraction

cum m sg (masculine plural cuns, feminine singular cuma, feminine plural cumas)

1. (Portugal, informal) contraction of com um (“with a”)

Etymology 2

Preposition

cum

1. (Brazil, Internet slang) eye dialect spelling of com

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:cum.

Further reading

• “cum”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Rohingya

Etymology

From Sanskrit चुम्ब (cumba).

Noun

cum

1. kiss

Romanian

Alternative forms

• кум (cum) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Etymology

Inherited from Late Latin quomo, from Latin quōmodo.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkum/
• Rhymes: -um

Adverb

cum

1. (interrogative or negative) how

Conjunction

cum

1. how
2. as, since, seeing that
3. (informal) synonym of de cum (“as soon as”)

Usage notes

Sense 2 is low-pitched or unstressed, while sense 3 is high-pitched or stressed.

Derived terms

• cum ar fi
• cum de
• cum să nu
• de cum
• și încă cum

References

• “cum”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English cumen, variant of comen, from Old English cuman. Cognate with English come and Yola coome.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʌm/

Verb

cum

1. to come

References

• “cum, v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

Scottish Gaelic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʰuːm/

Etymology 1

From Old Irish con·gaib. Cognate with Irish coinnigh and Manx cum.

Verb

cum (past chum, future cumaidh, verbal noun cumail or cumadh, past participle cumta)

1. alternative form of cùm (“keep”)

Etymology 2

From Old Irish cummaid (“to fashion, makes”), from cummae (“act of cutting, shaping”), verbal noun of con·ben.

Verb

cum (past chum, future cumaidh, verbal noun cumadh, past participle cumta)

1. shape, form

Mutation

Yola

Verb

cum

1. alternative form of coome

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 131