IM
1 Americanverb (used without object)
abbreviation
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Swimming. individual medley.
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Sports. intramural.
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Also I.M. Isle of Man.
abbreviation
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computing instant messaging
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Also: i.m.. intramuscular
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chess International Master
contraction
prefix
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:
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
She holds the world record in the 400 IM; she swam it in 4:24.38 at last year’s Canadian swimming finals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2025
The robot had been directed to a cratered terrain near the Moon's south pole, and the IM team believes it got very close to the targeted site - perhaps within a couple of kilometres.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2024
I closed the IM window and checked the time.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
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"I'm very worried," demonstrator Laura Saalfeld told AFP.
From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026
I'm just focused on taking it race by race and trying to maximise every single weekend.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
Rather than hearting nearly every mom group chat message, from dramatic notes about soccer games to missives on playground squabbles, I’m just going to do…nothing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
“I just had him, and now it’s concerning if he’s going to be able to grow up here,” Orduno said, or “if I’m going to have to relocate.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
“I don’t think I’m a good fit for your club,” I say gently.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
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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
The documentary, directed by Patrick Farrelly and Kate O'Callaghan, shows Maron prowling the corridors like a prima donna permanently on the verge of im- or ex-ploding.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Then that crumbled and he dreamed dizzily of himself as im- prisoned by the Winkelbergs, craning out of a lopsided tenement win- dow in a nightcap, blowing kisses into infinity.
From Time Magazine Archive
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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
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It was the first line im- mediately above what you did quote.
From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 5 (of 12) Dresden Edition?Discussions by Robert Green Ingersoll
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
Of the others, many at times show -im and -ī.
From New Latin Grammar by Charles E. (Charles Edwin) Bennett
Town and river names in -is regularly have -im, -ī.
From New Latin Grammar by Charles E. (Charles Edwin) Bennett
In a heavily redacted message, Epstein wrote: “Hi , im jeffrey. Brett ratner thought we should meet.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026
"I've learned i've healed, and im loving the woman i've become! Thats what this next era means to me and i'm stepping into it better than ever," she wrote.
From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2025
Citing a source, the Post quoted the message this way: “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all. It was me at UVU yesterday. im sorry for all of this.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2025
“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
I stood there for a minute, fighting the urge to fidget im patiently.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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IM's target is at 80 degrees South, a mere 300km from the south pole proper.
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
With 19-year-old Emma Weyant taking silver in the women’s race, behind Japan’s Yui Ohashi, and Hali Flickinger winning bronze, the Americans earned the maximum four of the available six medals in the 400 IMs.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 24, 2021
Four of the six Olympic medals won by László Cseh between 2004 and 2012 came in IM and then Katinka Hosszú swept gold in the IMs four years ago in Rio de Janeiro.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 21, 2021
If you can get it working, though, you’ll be rewarded with a new tab at the bottom of the Gmail app, giving you access to your IMs.
From The Verge ● May 13, 2021
There’s email and Skype and texts and IMs and maybe even visits to Jamaica.
From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon
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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
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“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
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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
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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
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He keeps IMing me to ask when we can get together and discuss the “disconnect” he’s been feeling.
From Slate ● Feb. 8, 2017
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
They called him "Ruthless" and I'd seen a news report once about how tight a rein he kept his staffers on, calling them, IMing them, watching their every motion, controlling every step.
From Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
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.