am
verb
1st person singular present indicative of be.
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.
-
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
verb
Am
2
British
symbol
a.m.
3
British
abbreviation
am
4
British
abbreviation
A/M
5
British
abbreviation
Am.
6
British
abbreviation
am
7
British
AM
8
British
abbreviation
-
associate member
-
Assembly Member (of the National Assembly of Wales)
-
Albert Medal
-
Master of Arts
-
Also: am. amplitude modulation
-
See a.m.
-
Member of the Order of Australia
-
Armenia (international car registration)
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:
I am saying it because I can do math.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
“I’ve had depression and I often dream that I am there, in that place, and I want to get out.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
I am not saying that because I am out to get the Republicans.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
"I want every single Manchester City fan across the world to know I am here; more than ever," he posted on social media.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
“Because”—Gingersnipes held up her paws as if it were obvious—“I am useless.”
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
In the 2019 Netflix film, Dolly Parton: Here I Am, he said his job was to transform her from a "heritage act" into a "superstar", and he took responsibility for reviving her international touring career.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
From footnote 21 in “ ‘Lord I Am 1’: The Solitary ‘I’ and the Social Lyric,” a 2025 doctoral dissertation in English by Jenna Hart at the University of Illinois Chicago:
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Am I financially ready to retire, and how much of my investment portfolio will I actually need?
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
“Where that is, no one can tell me. Am I doomed to ever roam?”
From Salon ● Aug. 28, 2026
Am I right, ladies, or am I right?
From "Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus" by Dusti Bowling
Study co-lead Professor David Whiteman AM said the presence of skin damage does not mean cancer has already formed.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026
Throughout the crisis, Kiritsis made live calls to Fred Heckman, a local AM radio news broadcaster, pleading to listeners for the justice he believed he was due.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
Many carmakers have said that currents from EV motors can interfere with AM broadcast signals and have removed radio receivers from newer models as a result.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Yet carmakers have long been opposed to an AM radio mandate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Powers had been up since two AM, undergoing medical tests, scarfing down a huge breakfast, and cramming himself into his uncomfortable, pressurized flight suit.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
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
Weekly jobless claims are coming at 8:30 a.m.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026
No matter how many times I put my exact address into the app for that 5:30 a.m. trip, Waymo listed another pickup address.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Here were the most active stock-market ticker symbols as of 5 a.m.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026
None of those was an issue on travel columnist Dawn Gilbertson’s 5:30 a.m.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026
Everything had changed on that Sunday morning at 8:32 a.m.
From "Mountain of Fire" by Rebecca E. F. Barone
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
“Overall, there are benefits to the use of telematics,” said Chris Draghi, a director at A.M.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 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
At 11:01 A.M., a hydrogen explosion bigger and more violent than the one they had experienced two days earlier rocked unit 3.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
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.
