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• 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.)

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Er ² American  

Symbol, Chemistry.

1. erbium.

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ER ³ American  

abbreviation

1. Baseball. earned run.

2. efficiency report.

3. emergency room.

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-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 ).

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-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.

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-er ⁶ American  

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

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-er ⁷ American  

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

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-er ⁸ American  

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

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-er ⁹ American  

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

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-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.

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E.R. ¹¹ American  

abbreviation

1. King Edward.

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E.R. ¹² American  

abbreviation

1. Queen Elizabeth.

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E.R. ¹³ American  

abbreviation

1. East Riding (Yorkshire).

2. East River (New York City).

3. emergency room.

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-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

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ER ² British  

abbreviation

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

2. Elizabeth Regina

3. Eduardus Rex

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-er ³ British  

suffix

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

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Er ⁴ British  

symbol

1. erbium

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er ⁵ British  

/ ə, ɜː /

interjection

1. a sound made when hesitating in speech

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er ⁶ British  

abbreviation

1. Eritrea

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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.

The YA musical drama, which premieres Friday, pays homage to musical theater, unconditional maternal love and the family-hour TV, er, Netflix movie.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

A friendly game against, er, whoever, or a momentous day for the Scottish national team and the chosen ones bound for the States - same difference.

From BBC ● May 19, 2026

The former Oracle employee’s comedy—which can poke fun at his previous career in sales, er, the “revenue side of strategic pipeline development”—has struck a chord and is earning him millions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026

We should just accept that we’re better off living in a van – er, cabin by the river.

From Salon ● Mar. 23, 2026

“We will grant you a new, er, stick. The best stick that may be found.”

From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan

"Er, yeah" replied Murray in possibly the understatement of his life.

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 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

“Hong Kong has become much more inclusive for mainlanders,” said Zheng Huiwen, the manager at one of the Hong Kong branches of Tai Er Pickled Fish, a Sichuan fish restaurant from mainland China.

From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2024

“Good Lord, so I did! Er, just four flagons, thank you, my good mouse.”

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data tracking ER visits for tick bites, which are the highest on record in almost every U.S. region since 2017.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026

At the ER, I told them my injuries were the result of a motor-vehicle accident, and I used my Medicare coverage for the visit.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 3, 2026

Anesthesiologists and ER doctors are among the winners under the setup created by a 2020 law to protect patients from surprise medical bills.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

“When we saw something suspicious on her, we took her to the ER, and they didn’t quite know what to make of it,” she said in the video.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026

A couple of weeks before, as an escort officer, I had taken the kid to the ER for the exact same complaint.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover

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

Tweaking that line to “in there” gives you an -er sound at the end of both lines.

From Slate ● May 31, 2020

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

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

You will need to drop everything and get him to the E.R. — no matter where you are, no matter what you are doing.

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

Related Words

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