hum
Americanverb (used without object)
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hums,
present (3rd person singular)
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hummed,
past participle, past
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humming
present participle
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to make a low, continuous, droning sound.
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to give forth an indistinct sound of mingled voices or noises.
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to utter an indistinct sound in hesitation, embarrassment, dissatisfaction, etc.; hem.
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to sing with closed lips, without articulating words.
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to be in a state of busy activity.
The household hummed in preparation for the wedding.
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British Slang. to have a bad odor, as of stale perspiration.
verb (used with object)
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hums,
present (3rd person singular)
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hummed,
past participle, past
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humming
present participle
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to sound, sing, or utter by humming.
to hum a tune.
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to bring, put, etc., by humming.
to hum a child to sleep.
noun
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hums
plural
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the act or sound of humming; an inarticulate or indistinct murmur; hem.
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Audio. an unwanted low-frequency sound caused by power-line frequencies in any audio component.
interjection
verb
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(intr) to make a low continuous vibrating sound like that of a prolonged m
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(intr) (of a person) to sing with the lips closed
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(intr) to utter an indistinct sound, as in hesitation; hem
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informal (intr) to be in a state of feverish activity
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slang (intr) to smell unpleasant
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slang (intr) to scrounge
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See hem 2
noun
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a low continuous murmuring sound
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electronics an undesired low-frequency noise in the output of an amplifier or receiver, esp one caused by the power supply
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slang a scrounger; cadger
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slang an unpleasant odour
interjection
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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humsimple
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humssimple
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have hummedperfect
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has hummedperfect
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am hummingprogressive
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are hummingprogressive
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is hummingprogressive
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have been hummingperfect progressive
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has been hummingperfect progressive
Past
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hummedsimple
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had hummedperfect
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was hummingprogressive
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were hummingprogressive
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had been hummingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hum
1300–50; Middle English; ultimately imitative; cognate with German hummen to hum; cf. humblebee
Explanation
To hum is to make a low, steady, singing sound with your mouth closed. If you don't know the words to a song on the radio, you can just hum along. Other hums are based on the musical hum, making a similar low, constant sound. Bees hum, an electric fan hums, and your car idling quietly also hums. A figurative way to hum is to be busy and loud: "The cafe always seemed to hum with activity." The word hum is imitative (it sounds like the noise it describes), but its earliest form was hommen, in the 1500s, meaning "make a murmuring sound to cover embarrassment."
Vocabulary lists containing hum
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:
But these sights are drained of their warmth, depicted with a cold, eerie hum that, when it bleeds into the roar of suffering miles away, becomes a deafening cacophony.
From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2026
An hour after the final whistle, the only sound heard at Ibrox was the hum of three lawnmowers gliding over the turf.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Music is embedded in our brains and in our bodies, expressed with every rhythmic breath and step we take, each time we clap our hands, stomp our feet, beat our chests, whistle, hum or sing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
The hum can be difficult to detect outdoors.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 19, 2026
There is silence for a long time, only the hum of the industrial fan overhead.
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
She hums “It’s a Hard-Knock Life” when she’s stressed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
“Making a phone call the old way fits in with that, just hearing the way the line hums before putting a coin in.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Even on an early Tuesday afternoon in July, the brightly lit, bustling space hums with high energy as a lunchtime crowd of New Yorkers tightly navigates the narrow aisles with oversized canvas bags.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
As he watches dishes cook, he hums along in Persian to the music playing in his restaurant.
From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026
It hums as they activate the machine meant to erase the last of me, the last of Petra Peña.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
At the bustling centre, sewing machines hummed as women stitched blankets, while others stacked thin mattresses ready to be handed out.
From Barron's ● May 25, 2026
Our Bosch dishwasher hummed but refused to wash, so I replaced the clogged heat exchanger.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026
Her phone was kept on silent; electro-beats hummed in the background; digestive biscuits were devoured.
From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2025
The fountain hummed beside him while students streamed past the gate—laughing, scrolling, carrying coffee, stubbornly keeping going.
From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2025
As their camouflaged troop carriers hummed and tanks growled, they roughhoused, wrestling and knocking one another about.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
But a lot would have to go right to keep the AI boom humming.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
The great migration of the Bogong moth was once a yearly feature of the Australian spring, the insects humming down the nation's east coast in their billions as they searched for cooler climes.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
When the waiting becomes almost too much, Deborah starts humming a few bars of a familiar song.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026
When Lucy* puts her child to bed, she hears a constant humming.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Alicia just shrugged and started humming a little tune.
From "Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody" by Patrick Ness
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.
