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:
That makes sense; em dashes are easy to spot, and I’ve consciously used them less as the internet has flooded with them.
From Slate ● Aug. 18, 2026
But he said he’ll replace em dashes with two smaller dashes, hoping they’ll look more handmade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
The turnover ➡️ The easy deuce for Khamenia @DukeMBB makes em pay.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 30, 2026
“The em dash is now a GPT-ism and is not advisable unless you want people to think your writing is the output of a LLM,” wrote a user named energy123 on Hacker News.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
“Miss Skeeter say the peace dove be the sign for better times to come. Say folks is wearing em on they clothes out in California.”
From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
“I don’t think any of ‘em are trying hard enough,” she said.
From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2026
Pokémon fans have spent the past three decades trying to catch 'em all - and since the beginning this hunt has often taken place outside the home.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 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
“Like I had to have these kicks, right? I totally got Pops to get ’em.
From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée
The experimental-video director with the white faux hawk I met at Go Get Em Tiger in East Hollywood.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
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
“I wish I were with you tonight, but Em is here.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
He faces competition from fellow rap maverick Tyler, The Creator with his wildly inventive Chromakopia; and reunited hip-hop duo Clipse, whose Let God Sort Em Out is their first release since 2009.
From BBC ● Nov. 7, 2025
Em let herself be hugged by Bridge, and then she followed Sherm onto the dim stage.
From "Goodbye Stranger" by Rebecca Stead
The almost parabolic moves in parts of EM equities have been driven by earnings, as strong demand has collided with shortages and supply has struggled to catch up, he said in an interview.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
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
EM economies are taking the brunt of the whiplash.
From Barron's ● May 23, 2026
“Ultimately, we think the long-term outlook for gold will depend on the level of reserves EM central banks end up with, and the share of gold they target,” he said in written commentary.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 30, 2026
The sealed rubber jar batteries include types EM, EEW, IPR, SMW, and SEW.
From The Automobile Storage Battery Its Care And Repair by Otto A. Witte
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
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
In the future, more and more of them may em- ulate the experiments of Tanzania and Kenya.
From Time Magazine Archive
The forms en- and em- are of French origin.
From New Word-Analysis by William Swinton
I cannot thank you too em- phatically for the devoted care with which you have watched over me during our long and eventful voyage.
From The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan by Sir W. S. (William Schwenck) Gilbert
When circumstance, and one’s own body, seem to conspire against you, one can, as E.M.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2025
She also starred with Olivier and Harry Hamlin in Cross’ adaptation of the Greek epic “Clash of the Titans” and a slew of film comedies before landing in the 1985 Merchant Ivory production of E.M.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2024
Happy endings in queer cinema can be credited to "Maurice," the 1987 romance drama based on E.M.
From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2023
“Marabar,” Zimmerman’s original work, was named after a fictional cave referenced in E.M.
From New York Times ● Apr. 3, 2023
C.W.S., for "Clothed With The Sun," being the book of the Illuminations of A.K.; edited by E.M.,
From The Story of Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland and of the new Gospel of Interpretation by Edward Maitland
And with compositors setting 700-1,500 ems an hour, and an American newspaper of 1880 averaging about 75,000 ems of copy, typesetting was one of a newspaper’s biggest costs.
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
For my own part, I hope that the ems come soon.
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
His hands seemed to flow back and forth like the tide, and yet he was setting twenty ems eight-point and keeping the machine hung.
From Nine Men in Time by Noel Miller Loomis
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.
