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• gram
  gram

  noun

  a metric unit of mass or weight equal to 15.432 grains; one thousandth of a kilogram. g
• Gram
  Gram

  noun

  (in theVolsunga Saga ) the sword of Sigmund, broken by Odin, repaired by Regin, and used again by Sigurd in killing Fafnir.
• -gram
  -gram

  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 ).
• gram.
  gram.

  abbreviation

  grammar.

gram

¹ American  

[gram] / græm /

especially British, gramme

noun

1. a metric unit of mass or weight equal to 15.432 grains; one thousandth of a kilogram. g

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gram ² American  

[gram] / græm /

noun

1. (in the East Indies) the chickpea used as a food for people and cattle.

2. 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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Gram ³ American  

[grahm] / grɑm /

noun

1. (in theVolsunga Saga ) the sword of Sigmund, broken by Odin, repaired by Regin, and used again by Sigurd in killing Fafnir.

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-gram ⁴ American  

1. 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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-gram ⁵ American  

1. a combining form of gram.

   kilogram.

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-gram ⁶ American  

1. 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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gram. ⁷ American  

abbreviation

1. grammar.

2. grammarian.

3. grammatical.

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gram ¹ British  

/ ɡrɑːm /

noun

1. (in India) a village

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gram. ² British  

abbreviation

1. grammar

2. grammatical

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gram ³ British  

/ ɡræm /

noun

1. g. a metric unit of mass equal to one thousandth of a kilogram. It is equivalent to 15.432 grains or 0.002 205 pounds

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-gram ⁴ British  

combining form

1. indicating a drawing or something written or recorded

   hexagram

   telegram

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gram ⁵ British  

/ ɡræm /

noun

1. 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

2. the seed of any of these plants

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gram ¹ Scientific  

/ grăm /

1. A unit of mass in the metric system, equal to 0.001 kilogram or 0.035 ounce.

2. See Table at measurement

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Gram ² Scientific  

/ gräm,grăm /

1. 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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gram Cultural  

1. 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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Usage

What does -gram mean? The combining form -gram is used like a suffix that has three distinct senses. The first of these senses is “something written” or "drawing" and this form of -gram is frequently used in a variety of scientific and technical terms. This meaning of -gram comes from Greek grámma, meaning “something written or drawn.”The second of these senses is “gram,” as in "one-thousandth of a kilogram," and this form of -gram is occasionally used in a variety of technical terms. This meaning of -gram also ultimately comes from Greek grámma but in the sense of "a small weight."The third of these senses is “message; bulletin.” This form of -gram is very occasionally used in a variety of technical terms, and its meaning is extracted from telegram. Find out more about the word telegram at our entry for the word.

Etymology

Origin of gram¹

1790–1800; < French gramme < Late Latin gramma a small weight < Greek grámma something drawn, a small weight

Origin of gram²

First recorded in 1695–1705; from Portuguese grão, from Latin grānum “seed, grain, kernel”; see origin at grain

Origin of Gram³

From the Old Norse word Gramr literally, angry, evil

Origin of -gram⁴

< Greek -gramma, combining form of grámma something written or drawn; akin to carve

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Explanation

A gram is a unit of measurement. Some doctors recommend eating one gram of protein for each kilogram of body weight. Because a gram is a metric unit — in this case, measuring the mass of some object or substance — it isn't used as commonly in the US as it is in Britain and Canada, where metric measurements are standard. Still if you examine an American food label, you'll almost always see the mass in grams listed. The Greek root of gram is gramma, or "small weight."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gram Gram gram.

"However we can do several studies even on individual grains… You don't need to have kilos back from a surface in order to do science. So it's worth every gram," she said.

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026

A single gram can hold about 215 million gigabytes of data.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026

According to miners who spoke to AFP, their sale price per gram was around $118.

From Barron's ● Aug. 9, 2026

For all of sodium-ion batteries’ strengths, there is one arena where lithium-ion batteries are still tops, owing to unavoidable physical realities: the amount of energy they can store per gram.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

Add which had not been carefully mowed, the string became wound round thistles or tufts of gram, thus checking the hawk and doing damage to its training.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Husain painted Gram Yatra - or village journey - in 1954, long before he became an icon.

From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2025

In Gram Yatra, Husain used vibrant, earthy tones to bring 13 frames to life, with women in everyday scenes such as cooking, caring for children and riding a cart.

From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2025

“It was really important to me that the people who love Gram felt a contribution, a stake in the subject matter,” Polly says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 20, 2023

“I’d never heard any Gram and Emmy where you could hear their voices like this together,” Prinz says over the phone from his home in Marin County.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 20, 2023

Dad used to drive me here pretty much every weekend to stay with Gram, so I’ve always had my own bedroom, and I’ve explored every corner of the village.

From "How to Disappear Completely" by Ali Standish

Decomposed with potash and changed into silver salt, it gave 0.4404 gram. of silver salt = 0.2437 gram. of silver.

From The Art of Perfumery And Methods of Obtaining the Odors of Plants by George William Septimus Piesse

The powder was administered by mixing 1 gram. with each cereal feeding.

From The Vitamine Manual by Walter H. Eddy

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