IM
noun
IM
1 American
[ahy-em]
/ ˈaɪˈɛm /
verb (used without object)
IM'd,
IMed,
IM'ing,
IMing
IM
2
American
abbreviation
-
Swimming. individual medley.
-
Sports. intramural.
-
Also I.M. Isle of Man.
I'm
3
American
[ahym]
/ aɪm /
im-
4
American
im-
5
American
im-
6
American
-im
7
American
IM
1
British
abbreviation
-
computing instant messaging
-
Also: i.m.. intramuscular
-
chess International Master
I'm
2
British
/ aɪm /
contraction
im-
3
British
prefix
im
4
British
abbreviation
Usage
See contraction.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of IM1
First recorded in 1990–95
Origin of -im7
From Hebrew
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:
"Goonhilly will provide the backbone for this network, scales our global ground presence, and will bring a strategic core competency to the Intuitive Machines team," said Steve Altemus, CEO of IM.
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
Operating expenses rose 5.5% from a year earlier to 8.71 billion euros, in part due to restructuring charges related to the the AXA IM integration, BNP Paribas added.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
By watching how spirals move in the IM Lupi disc over time, the team could tell that they were caused by a new planet being born and not a planet growing bigger!
From Space Scoop ● Oct. 24, 2025
“I won’t take this laying down anymore IM DONE!”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2023
With Olly back in school, our IM sessions are even more limited.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
I’m annoyed with ourselves for giving so much time to helping them.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 25, 2026
“Some words, if I say it with the Boston accent, you might not even know what word I’m trying to say,” he joked.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026
I’m an economist who has been studying inequality for about two decades.
From Salon ● Oct. 25, 2026
"These are the best in the world and I'm proving why I'm number one now."
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026
“Look, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. But I am sure that getting to know a little bit about these guys is the right thing to do,” I insist.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
The sheriff listened with a distracted look on his face, but when I said I was going to see the judge, he agreed to move the child into a protected area im- mediately.
From MSNBC ● Oct. 22, 2014
Poe's childhood is a crystal ball wherein the seer discovers an im- placable inferiority feeling fastened upon the sensitive orphan son of an itinerant actress and a disinherited Baltimore mooncalf.
From Time Magazine Archive
During his childhood in San Francisco, he and his father, a railroad man with a passion for the tenor sax, would im- provise hymns at Presbyterian Sunday school.
From Time Magazine Archive
He also believed that literature is im- portant and - powerful enough to change people for better and worse.
From Time Magazine Archive
This union is helped on by the im- proved means of communication that are created by modern industry, and that place the workers of different localities in contact with one another.
From Proposed Roads to Freedom by Bertrand Russell
Town and river names in -is regularly have -im, -ī.
From New Latin Grammar by Charles E. (Charles Edwin) Bennett
Of the others, many at times show -im and -ī.
From New Latin Grammar by Charles E. (Charles Edwin) Bennett
Words marked with a star regularly have Acc. -im; those marked with a † regularly have Abl. -ī.
From New Latin Grammar by Charles E. (Charles Edwin) Bennett
Their true character as Consonant-Stems, however, is shown by the fact that they never take -im in the Accusative Singular, or -ī in the Ablative Singular.
From New Latin Grammar by Charles E. (Charles Edwin) Bennett
Originally the Accusative Singular ended in -im, the Ablative Singular in -ī, and the Accusative Plural in -īs; but these endings have been largely displaced by -em, -e, and -ēs, the endings of Consonant-Stems.
From New Latin Grammar by Charles E. (Charles Edwin) Bennett
There’s a folksy, faux-naïveté to her art, as im “Revelation,” a striking vertical panel in which an ancestor of the artist hides a treasure, then comes to her in a dream to reveal its location.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 9, 2026
“Im trying to get updates on whether world war 3 is on but all im seeing are fat JD vance memes.”
From Slate ● Mar. 5, 2025
When Women’s March shared information about an upcoming rally on Instagram, one person responded, “No im tired, yall have fun though.”
From Salon ● Nov. 25, 2024
“Im ok, just a lil soreness, but im in good spirits.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2024
I stood there for a minute, fighting the urge to fidget im patiently.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
IM's 675kg Odysseus lander is about the size of an old British telephone box.
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2024
Working with my then-adviser, the Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, I analyzed the U.S. government data to show how the trajectory and other properties of IM’s fireball were consistent with the meteor having an interstellar origin.
From Scientific American ● Jul. 5, 2023
Michael Garin, CEO of Abu Dhabi-based Image Nation, said Cannes had generated significant interest for IM's film version of Dave Eggers's novel "The Circle".
From Reuters ● May 20, 2015
Mark Zuckerberg’s undergrad IM’s, scorning the “dumb” users of Facebook’s prototype, presaged the privacy policies of his $164 billion company today.
From Time ● May 30, 2014
In the final 50 meters of the IM’s freestyle leg, she swam faster than Ryan Lochte did in that portion of his gold-medal-winning 400-meter IM.
From Slate ● Aug. 1, 2012
They’ve checked in via text, email, IMs, chats and every other way imaginable since the disaster made national and world news.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2025
He qualified in the 200 and 400 IMs and the 200 backstroke.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 1, 2021
The Stasi employed more than 90,000 regular workers and 174,000 informal ones, or IMs, whose role was to spy on friends, family and work colleagues and report information to designated handlers.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 18, 2019
After taking home Olympic silver in the 400 individual medley last year, 23-year-old Chase Kalisz will compete in the 200 and 400 IMs at worlds.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 4, 2017
He IMs when he can—in between classes or, sometimes, right in the middle of one.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
One last thing: A friend IM’d me a theory this morning that I want to run by you guys and the readers: “The show depicts paranoia, social anxiety, and hallucinations,” he wrote.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2012
Nancy IM'd Ned again: "How can I find him?"
From "Case of the Sneaky Snowman: Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew, #5" by Carolyn Keene
I said yes to a request from Markie's parents to babysit the next day, and I IM’d JonPaul to see how he was feeling.
From "Liar, Liar" by Gary Paulsen
“That explains why you haven’t asked me yet! Guess what. Corey IM’d me! We chatted for, like, almost an hour.”
From "Every Day" by David Levithan
Through this, he found my personal email and started IM'ing me constantly.
From Slate ● Feb. 6, 2012
"I was sick of that fabric being all bundled up there," he IMed back.
From Time Magazine Archive
At its heart, the piece portrays a divide between people who like IMing and people who don’t—but it doesn’t give any real evidence that this is specifically a generation gap.
From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2018
In addition…introverted participants profited from IMing more than did extraverts.”
From Scientific American ● Jul. 31, 2015
In the movie: No IMing that we see, which makes sense, considering the Fault and Paper Towns screenwriters took out most of the video game playing in Fault.
From Time ● Jul. 24, 2015
It’s pretty reliably running things, IMing the other body parts like crazy, regulating chemicals, making calculations and responding to stimuli, half the time without you even knowing about it.
From Salon ● Jan. 16, 2013
I ended up IMing with Ange for quite a while that night.
From Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
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