Jump To:

• er
  er

  interjection

  (used to express or represent a pause, hesitation, uncertainty, etc.)
• Er
  Er

  erbium.
• ER
  ER

  abbreviation

  earned run.
• -er
  -er

  a suffix used in forming nouns designating persons from the object of their occupation or labor (hatter; tiler; tinner; moonshiner ), or from their place of origin or abode (Icelander; southerner; villager ), or designating either persons or things from some special characteristic or circumstance (six-footer; three-master; teetotaler; fiver; tenner ).
• E.R.
  E.R.

  abbreviation

  King Edward.

er

¹ American  

[uh, er] / ə, ər /

interjection

1. (used to express or represent a pause, hesitation, uncertainty, etc.)

---

Er ² American  

Symbol, Chemistry.

1. erbium.

---

ER ³ American  

abbreviation

1. Baseball. earned run.

2. efficiency report.

3. emergency room.

---

-er ⁴ American  

1. a suffix used in forming nouns designating persons from the object of their occupation or labor (hatter; tiler; tinner; moonshiner ), or from their place of origin or abode (Icelander; southerner; villager ), or designating either persons or things from some special characteristic or circumstance (six-footer; three-master; teetotaler; fiver; tenner ).

2. a suffix serving as the regular English formative of agent nouns, being attached to verbs of any origin (bearer; creeper; employer; harvester; teacher; theorizer ).

---

-er ⁵ American  

1. a noun suffix occurring in loanwords from French in the Middle English period, most often names of occupations (archer; butcher; butler; carpenter; grocer; mariner; officer ), but also other nouns (corner; danger; primer ). Some historical instances of this suffix, as in banker or gardener, where the base is a recognizable modern English word, are now indistinguishable from denominal formations with -er1, as miller or potter.

---

-er ⁶ American  

1. a termination of nouns denoting action or process: dinner; rejoinder; remainder; trover .

---

-er ⁷ American  

1. a suffix regularly used in forming the comparative degree of adjectives: harder; smaller .

---

-er ⁸ American  

1. a suffix regularly used in forming the comparative degree of adverbs: faster .

---

-er ⁹ American  

1. a formal element appearing in verbs having frequentative meaning: flicker; flutter; shiver; shudder .

---

-er ¹⁰ American  

1. a suffix that creates informal or jocular mutations of more neutral words, which are typically clipped to a single syllable if polysyllabic, before application of the suffix, and which sometimes undergo other phonetic alterations: bed-sitter; footer; fresher; rugger . Most words formed thus have been limited to English public-school and university slang; few, if any, have become current in North America, with the exception of soccer, which has also lost its earlier informal character.

---

E.R. ¹¹ American  

abbreviation

1. King Edward.

---

E.R. ¹² American  

abbreviation

1. Queen Elizabeth.

---

E.R. ¹³ American  

abbreviation

1. East Riding (Yorkshire).

2. East River (New York City).

3. emergency room.

---

-er ¹ British  

suffix

1. a person or thing that performs a specified action

   reader

   decanter

   lighter

2. a person engaged in a profession, occupation, etc

   writer

   baker

   bootlegger

3. a native or inhabitant of

   islander

   Londoner

   villager

4. a person or thing having a certain characteristic

   newcomer

   double-decker

   fiver

---

ER ² British  

abbreviation

1. (in the US) Emergency Room (in hospitals)

2. Elizabeth Regina

3. Eduardus Rex

---

-er ³ British  

suffix

1. forming the comparative degree of adjectives ( deeper, freer, sunnier, etc) and adverbs ( faster, slower, etc)

---

Er ⁴ British  

symbol

1. erbium

---

er ⁵ British  

/ ə, ɜː /

interjection

1. a sound made when hesitating in speech

---

er ⁶ British  

abbreviation

1. Eritrea

---

Etymology

Origin of -er⁴

Middle English -er(e), a coalescence of Old English -ere agentive suffix (cognate with Old High German -āri, Gothic -areis, from unattested Germanic -arjaz, from unattested Slavic -arĭ, from Latin -ārius ) and Old English -ware suffix forming nouns of ethnic or residential origin (e.g., Rōmware “Romans”), cognate with Old High German -āri, from unattested Germanic -warioz “people”; see origin at -ary

Origin of -er⁵

Middle English < Anglo-French -er, equivalent to Old French -er, -ier < Latin -ārius, -ārium. Cf. -ary, -eer, -ier ²

Origin of -er⁶

< French, originally infinitive suffix -er, -re

Origin of -er⁷

Middle English -er ( e ), -re, Old English -ra, -re; cognate with German -er

Origin of -er⁸

Middle English -er ( e ), -re, Old English -or; cognate with Old High German -or, German -er

Origin of -er⁹

Middle English; Old English -r-; cognate with German - ( e ) r-

Origin of -er¹⁰

Probably modeled on nonagentive uses of -er ¹; said to have first become current in University College, Oxford, 1875–80

Origin of E.R.¹¹

From New Latin Edwardus Rex

Origin of E.R.¹²

From New Latin Elizabeth Regina

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

er Er ER -er E.R.

Scientists estimate that so-called dark matter and dark energy make up 95% of the universe, and shedding more, er, light on them could unveil more about how the universe was created.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

And they are doing so with their usual brand of nonsense and … er … “alternative facts.”

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026

Staples — er, Crypto.com Arena — is where Kobe Bryant dropped 81.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026

The last years of the V8 era, once refuelling was banned at the end of 2009, fluctuated between intensely competitive and, er, not.

From BBC ● May 19, 2026

“Spy . . . er . . . spy . . . er . ..” said Harry, pacing up and down.

From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling

Er … 8% a year on average, or nearly a full percentage point per year better.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026

"The specific name lii honors Li Er, the ancient Chinese philosopher better known as Laozi," said the research team, led by Bo Cai.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 22, 2026

But the current Draco obsession stems from the transliteration of his surname, "Ma Er Fu", which contains the Chinese characters for "horse" and "good fortune" -- an auspicious omen for the year ahead.

From Barron's ● Feb. 5, 2026

Tai Er Pickled Fish became so popular among Hong Kong tourists in Shenzhen that, in December, it opened four locations in Hong Kong.

From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2024

“An accident, huh? Er, who was at fault? You, Marguerite? Errer was it you?”

From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou

Patients with LEP are more likely to make an unplanned return to the hospital after an ER discharge, a 2024 University of California, San Francisco review published in BMJ Quality & Safety found.

From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026

"While I'm working, I'm also on alert. Sometimes my wife suddenly calls, saying we need to take the child to the ER."

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

MAL was one of four blood group systems ratified during the period covered by the organization's 2026 terminology report, alongside ER, CD36 and ATP11C.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026

The show’s debut season was a breakout hit with viewers and charged into its first awards season with the same high-energy entrance as a medic team wheeling a patient into the ER.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

Being alone in a hospital freaks me out so I return to the ER waiting room to see if Wes and Russ are still there.

From "Boy21" by Matthew Quick

Among wealthy university students in the 1880s and 1890s, there was a habit of shortening words and adding "-er" to the end, creating a kind of slang.

From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026

Her th sounds were more like d sounds, pronouncing the word "those" like "doze," and if a word ended in -er, like "number," she said, "num-bah."

From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2022

The girl is embarrassed that she doesn’t understand, and replies, “I -er, oh, I don’t know, suh. I didn’t know you-er anybody could ride uh fish.”

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 27, 2020

He wrote: “The prophecy may be hazarded that we shall conform in time, one word in -re after another changing to -er; but we prefer in England to break with our illogicalities slowly.”

From Washington Post ● Oct. 15, 2019

Soccer was supposed to be an easy one, but I forgot about the -er not -re at the end.

From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff

But the betting here is that a viewer will be preoccupied by thinking about the multitude of head injuries someone like Robby would encounter in the E.R., and why he doesn’t wear a helmet himself.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 6, 2026

“Nobody ever wins a fight,” he solemnly tells the hot E.R. doctor who patches him up, echoing the words of Swayze’s sunrise tai chi practitioner.

From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2024

Presley, who’s vowed to work to expand Medicaid, responded from a shuttered E.R.:

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2023

The brick building at 1916 Post Alley opened in 1903 — four years before Pike Place Market started up a few blocks away — as the E.R.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 26, 2023

My parents knew somebody had to go rushing out of there with Jeffrey to the E.R., but who?

From "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• cry
• exclamation
• expletive
• insertion
• interpolation
• interposition
• shout

---