am
verb
1st person singular present indicative of be.
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am
1 American
[am, uhm, m]
/ æm, əm, m /
verb
Am
2
American
Symbol, Chemistry.
AM
3
American
abbreviation
-
Electronics. amplitude modulation: a method of impressing a signal on a radio carrier wave by varying its amplitude.
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Radio. a system of broadcasting by means of amplitude modulation.
-
of, relating to, or utilizing such a system.
-
Asian male.
Am.
4
American
abbreviation
-
America.
-
American.
A/m
5
American
a.m.
6
American
abbreviation
-
before noon.
-
the period from midnight to noon, especially the period of daylight prior to noon.
Shall we meet Saturday a.m.?
-
a morning newspaper, sometimes issued shortly before midnight.
A.M.
7
American
Am
1
British
symbol
am
2
British
verb
AM
3
British
abbreviation
-
associate member
-
Assembly Member (of the National Assembly of Wales)
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Albert Medal
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Master of Arts
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Also: am. amplitude modulation
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See a.m.
-
Member of the Order of Australia
-
Armenia (international car registration)
a.m.
4
British
abbreviation
am
5
British
am
6
British
abbreviation
A/M
7
British
abbreviation
Am.
8
British
abbreviation
AM
Scientific
Usage
The abbreviation a.m. for Latin ante merīdiem, meaning “before noon,” refers to the period from midnight until noon. One minute before noon is 11:59 a.m. One minute after noon is 12:01 p.m. Many people distinguish between noon and midnight by saying 12 noon and 12 midnight. Expressions combining a.m. with morning ( 6 a.m. in the morning ) and p.m. with afternoon, evening, or night ( 9 p.m. at night ) are redundant and occur most often in casual speech and writing. Both a.m. and p.m. sometimes appear in capital letters, especially in printed matter.
Etymology
Origin of am1
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English am, eam, eom; cognate with Gothic im, Old Norse, Armenian em, Old Irish am (from unattested esmi ), Attic Greek eimí, Aeolic Greek émmi, Doric Greek ēmí (all from prehistoric Greek esmi ), Hittite esmi, early Lithuanian esmì, Old Church Slavonic yesmĭ, Albanian jam (from unattested esmi ), Sanskrit ásmi, from unattested Proto-Indo-European ésmi, from root es- “to be” + -m 1st person singular + -i, present-time marker; cf. is
Origin of AM3
First recorded in 1935–40
Origin of a.m.6
From Latin ante merīdiem
Origin of A.M.7
A.M. ( def. 2 ) from Latin Artium Magister
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Sure, it’s nice to be reminded how brilliant I am.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
"The four of us -- my husband, our two children, and I were on the bed," when the 7.7-magnitude rattler stuck just north of Flores island at around 5.30 am on Saturday.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
“I am praying my flight doesn’t get cancelled,” the traveler wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
He added: "I am grateful to all of the agencies involved for their professionalism and dedication."
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
“Oh. For a second you were squinting very oddly at everything and I thought you had something in your eye. So, fox, which way am I to go?”
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
Am I able to do some of the benchmarks’ that he’s set out for himself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
Am I being too rigid with my lifestyle?
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
By the 1950s and ’60s, when boomers were growing up, Americans traveling abroad were in rare air—a glamorous jet set who wore their best for flights on Pan Am and TWA.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Libyan Al-Marimi, also known as Masud, has denied making and priming the bomb that destroyed Pan Am Flight 103 over Dumfries and Galloway on 21 December 1988.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
Am I sensing a “but” coming from her?
From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper
The messages claimed the "news media" had "confirmed" the death, and were followed by the national anthem and 16 minutes of silence on DAB+, while AM listeners heard back-up music.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
Time: Whether earnings are released AM — before the open — or PM — after the close.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
Catcher Dalton Rushing’s elbow injury was diagnosed as a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament, as manager Dave Roberts first told AM 570’s David Vassegh.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
Until now, however, scientists had not attempted to estimate and map the physical density and worldwide distribution of AM fungal networks themselves.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 15, 2026
Gogol fidgets with the radio, switching from the AM news station to NPR.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
The label ‘Negroes’ was commonplace in America through the 1960s—and as late as the 2010 census, a category of ‘Black, African Am., or Negro’ remained, but the Census Bureau subsequently dropped that label.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 19, 2025
"I. Am. The. Fury!" she intones before executing a somewhat flawless flying reverse turning kick.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2023
By the end, her work has had an impact at home, too — her baby sister marching around repeating her words: “I. Am. Not. Sorry!”
From New York Times ● Nov. 5, 2021
“I am stressed out. And when I say I am stressed out — I. Am. Stressed. Out.”
From Washington Post ● Aug. 31, 2021
“It reminds me, too, of how worthless I was. Am. How I couldn’t protect my work family. Not then. How I can’t protect my family now. Look at this place.”
From "Towers Falling" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Then, from just before 7:30 a.m. that morning to about 1:45 p.m. on Jan. 30, it stopped transmitting its location, a common tactic used by shadow-fleet tankers to obscure their activities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Her bar is directly across the street from the field where the data center is supposed to go, and she wants her staff comfortable with 6 a.m. shifts if the construction crews start showing up.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
I like to wake up at 7 a.m. to get my day started and do some chores, so going to sleep past midnight really takes a toll.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
The earthquake hit at 8:30 a.m. and was initially reported as magnitude 4.1, then 3.9, before being downgraded to 3.8.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
At 6:57 a.m., the train rumbled out of the station.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
With advances in technology, insurers have been accelerating investments in telematics, data and artificial intelligence, including to better predict driver risk and set rates, according to insurer ratings agency A.M.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
Be prepared for the trading day ahead—sign up for Markets A.M.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
Insurance shoppers can also measure an insurer’s financial strength by checking its credit rating through agencies like A.M.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 16, 2026
An industry praised for its resilience is now “significantly worse off” as it invests huge sums in private credit, A.M.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
So I set my alarm for 4 A.M. in order to check my crab pots before school, then laid out my clothes for the morning.
From "Red Kayak" by Priscilla Cummings
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
