em
noun
the letter M, m.
em
1 American
[em]
/ ɛm /
noun
-
ems
plural
-
the letter M, m.
-
Also called mut, mutton. Printing.
-
the square of any size of type used as the unit of measurement for matter printed in that type size.
-
(originally) the portion of a line of type occupied by the letter M in type of the same size.
-
adjective
'em
2
American
[uhm]
/ əm /
pronoun
Informal.
Em
3
American
Symbol, Physical Chemistry.
EM
4
American
abbreviation
-
electronic mail.
-
electron microscope; electron microscopy.
-
end matched.
-
Engineer of Mines.
-
enlisted man; enlisted men.
em-
5
American
em-
6
American
E.M.
7
American
abbreviation
-
Earl Marshal.
-
Engineer of Mines.
em
1
British
/ ɛm /
noun
-
Also called: mutton. mut. the square of a body of any size of type, used as a unit of measurement
-
Also called: pica em. pica. a unit of measurement used in printing, equal to one sixth of an inch
'em
2
British
/ əm /
pronoun
em-
3
British
prefix
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of em1
First recorded in 1860–65
Origin of 'em2
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English hem, Old English heom, dative and accusative plural of he 1
Vocabulary lists containing em
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:
Because more than any other punctuation mark, the em dash is deeply human.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
Last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X the following brag: “Small-but-happy win: If you tell ChatGPT not to use em dashes in your custom instructions, it finally does what it’s supposed to do!”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
The news drew praise from public figures, including Jennifer Lopez, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Bruno Mars, who wrote on X, “Go get em Bad Bunny!”
From Salon ● Sep. 29, 2025
“I told em, ‘yeah I got couple of those.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2025
“Oh, that’s right. Well, anyway, with all her friends coming over, specting you to clean up after em all the time.”
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
“You bring ‘em in, you sit ‘em down and they talk. That’s all ‘Cheers’ was,” Burrows told The Times.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
As a witness to the New York Mets’ abysmal inaugural season, Casey Stengel once remarked: “Been in this game one hundred years, but I see new ways to lose ’em I never knew existed before.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026
"I think let 'em play," Trump said in late April.
From Barron's ● May 18, 2026
Roman Abramovich's "hire 'em, fire 'em" strategy inflicted instability on Chelsea, but was also the catalyst for great glory.
From BBC ● Apr. 26, 2026
“Kin we take ‘em home?” wondered Flopears, who’d known few gifts.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
On this trip, the prosecution said, Stana had been in touch with a contact called "Em" on WhatsApp about the reconnaissance.
From BBC ● May 18, 2026
“Let God Sort Em Out” came 16 years after their last release, which had marked the end of the Virginia Beach-born group amid a “come to God” moment for Malice.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026
England internationals Em Arlott, Amy Jones, Danielle Gibson, Sarah Glenn and Linsey Smith are among the women's players to enter the draft at the £50,000 reserve price.
From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2026
Clipse and John Legend performed “The Birds Don’t Sing,” from the rap duo’s “Let God Sort Em Out,” which is up for album of the year at Sunday’s Grammys ceremony.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2026
He narrowed his eyes at Em and flipped another switch.
From "Goodbye Stranger" by Rebecca Stead
Strong performance in the EM space has increasingly been driven by a handful of stocks trading in Taiwan and South Korea, which play host to some of the world’s most influential AI hardware companies.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
In pre-market trading Thursday TSMC’s U.S.-listed depositary receipts were 1.87% higher at $440 and the EM ETF was indicating a gain of 2.52% at 70.29.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026
EM earnings have been revised “meaningfully” higher, providing a tailwind and a way to diversify exposure to AI beyond the U.S., she said.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 22, 2026
While the AI trade is usually viewed as confined to the U.S., it’s played a big part in EM as well, particularly in Asia.
From Barron's ● Feb. 6, 2026
Never mind, EM," she lisped, "everything is bound to come out right.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, November 8, 1890 by Various
Font Bureau even did some customization for us—they provided us with wider em- and en-dashes for our home page headline font, for example, since our headlines are full of em-dashes.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2013
In the future, more and more of them may em- ulate the experiments of Tanzania and Kenya.
From Time Magazine Archive
Dr. Allen Sinclair Will, 65, founder & director of Rutgers' Department of Journalism, onetime city editor of the Baltimore Sun; of cerebral em- bolism complicated by pneumonia; in Manhattan.
From Time Magazine Archive
The forms en- and em- are of French origin.
From New Word-Analysis by William Swinton
Scientific terms 127:9 The terms Divine Science, Spiritual Science, Christ Science or Christian Science, or Science alone, she em- ploys interchangeably, according to the re- 127:12 quirements of the context.
From Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
When circumstance, and one’s own body, seem to conspire against you, one can, as E.M.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2025
Happy endings in queer cinema can be credited to "Maurice," the 1987 romance drama based on E.M.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2023
The film, an adaptation of the novel by E.M.
From New York Times ● Jun. 27, 2023
So begins the airy, delectable Merchant-Ivory-Jhabvala adaptation of E.M.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2023
Bearing in mind that for such substances the term specific resistance has no very definite meaning, M. Bouty considers it is not less than 3.19 x 1028 E.M. units at ordinary temperatures.
From On Laboratory Arts by Richard Threlfall
That is blindingly fast when the usual working pace was 700 to 1,000 ems an hour.
From Economist ● Mar. 30, 2018
Newsham said prompt treatment by fire and ems personnel at the scene helped to improve the boy’s prospects.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 10, 2017
He believes the world economy, which now doubles every 15 years or so, will double every month once we enter the age of ems.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2016
Hanson doesn’t think that ems must necessarily live unhappy lives.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 9, 2016
You're yereby notified we claims union wages, the same bein' forty- five centouse a thousand ems from now ontil further orders.'
From Wolfville Days by Alfred Henry Lewis
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.
