gram1
[gram]
- a metric unit of mass or weight equal to 15.432 grains; one thousandth of a kilogram. Abbreviation: g
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Also especially British, gramme.
Origin of gram1
1790–1800; < French gramme < Late Latin gramma a small weight < Greek grámma something drawn, a small weight
gram2
[gram]
- (in the East Indies) the chickpea used as a food for people and cattle.
- any of several other beans, as the mung bean, Vigna radiata (green gram or golden gram), or the urd, V. mungo (black gram).
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Origin of gram2
Gram
[grahm]
- (in the Volsunga Saga) the sword of Sigmund, broken by Odin, repaired by Regin, and used again by Sigurd in killing Fafnir.
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Compare Balmung.
Origin of Gram
From the Old Norse word Gramr literally, angry, evil
gram.
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-gram1
- a combining form occurring in loanwords from Greek, where it meant “something written,” “drawing” (epigram; diagram); on this model, used in the formation of compound words (oscillogram).
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Compare -graph.
Origin of -gram1
-gram2
- a combining form of gram1: kilogram.
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-gram3
- a combining form extracted from telegram, used in the formation of compound words that have the general sense “message, bulletin”: culturegram; electiongram; prophecy-gram.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for gram
Contemporary Examples
The European formula for Fireball has even less: under one gram per kilogram of propylene glycol.
Wax can cost a hundred dollars a gram, while buds are as cheap as $20 these days.
Food business groups argue that a gram of sugar, natural or added, is a gram of sugar—so why distinguish it?
He was, he said, amazed that “a fraction of a gram of sugar had rendered [him] unconscious.”
Botulinum is the most deadly poison in the world: one gram spread evenly can kill one million people.
Historical Examples
All I know is that an elephant was an animal about the size of one of your Gram megatheres.
Space VikingHenry Beam Piper
No mention of the incident was made in any of the reports sent back to Gram.
Space VikingHenry Beam Piper
You think we don't have plenty of Neobarbarian material here on Gram?
Space VikingHenry Beam Piper
Boake Valkanhayn would command her on the voyage to and from Gram.
Space VikingHenry Beam Piper
A hundred and twenty-five days to Gram, and a hundred and twenty-five days back.
Space VikingHenry Beam Piper
gram1
- a metric unit of mass equal to one thousandth of a kilogram. It is equivalent to 15.432 grains or 0.002 205 poundsSymbol: g
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Word Origin
C18: from French gramme, from Late Latin gramma, from Greek: small weight, from graphein to write
gram2
- any of several leguminous plants, such as the beans Phaseolus mungo (black gram or urd) and P. aureus (green gram), whose seeds are used as food in India
- the seed of any of these plants
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Word Origin
C18: from Portuguese gram (modern spelling grão), from Latin grānum grain
gram3
- (in India) a village
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Word Origin
Hindi
gram.
- grammar
- grammatical
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-gram
- indicating a drawing or something written or recordedhexagram; telegram
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Word Origin
from Latin -gramma, from Greek, from gramma letter and grammē line
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for gram
n.
metric unit of weight," 1797, from French gramme (18c.), from Late Latin gramma "small weight," from Greek gramma "small weight," originally "letter of the alphabet," from stem of graphein "to draw, write" (see -graphy). Adopted into English about two years before it was established in France as a unit in the metric system by law of 19 frimaire, year VIII (1799).
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-gram
suffix from telegram (1852), first abstracted 1979 (in Gorillagram, a proprietary name in U.S.), and put to wide use in forming new words, such as stripagram (1981). The construction violates Greek grammar, as an adverb could not properly form part of a compound noun.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
gram
(grăm)- A metric unit of mass equal to 15.432 grains, one thousandth (10-3) of a kilogram, or 0.035 ounce.
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Gram
(grăm, gräm)Hans Christian Joachim 1853-1938- Danish physician who developed (1884) Gram's stain as a method of distinguishing types of bacteria.
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-gram
- Something written or drawn; a record:cardiogram.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
gram
[grăm]
- A unit of mass in the metric system, equal to 0.001 kilogram or 0.035 ounce. See Table at measurement.
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Gram
[gräm, grăm]
- Danish bacteriologist who in 1884 developed a method of staining bacteria, called Gram's stain or Gram's dye, that is used to identify and classify bacteria, often from samples of infected body fluids. The classification, called gram-negative or gram-positive, can be useful in the initial selection of antibiotics to treat the infection.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
gram
The basic unit of measurement for mass in the metric system; one cubic centimeter of water has a mass of approximately one gram.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.