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• Rom
  Rom

  noun

  an individual member of the Romani people, or Roma, especially a man or boy.
• ROM
  ROM

  noun

  computer memory in which program instructions, operating procedures, or other data are permanently stored, generally on electronic chips during manufacture, and that ordinarily cannot be changed by the user.
• rom.
  rom.

  abbreviation

  roman (printing type).
• Rom.
  Rom.

  abbreviation

  Roman.

Rom

¹ American  

[rohm] / roʊm /

noun

Roms, plural Rom plural

1. an individual member of the Romani people, or Roma, especially a man or boy.

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ROM ² American  

[rom] / rɒm /

noun

1. computer memory in which program instructions, operating procedures, or other data are permanently stored, generally on electronic chips during manufacture, and that ordinarily cannot be changed by the user.

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rom. ³ American  

abbreviation

1. roman (printing type).

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Rom. ⁴ American  

abbreviation

1. Roman.

2. Romance. Also Rom

3. Romania.

4. Romanian. Also Rom

5. Romanic. Also Rom

6. Bible. Romans (New Testament).

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Rom. ¹ British  

abbreviation

1. Roman

2. Romance (languages)

3. Bible Romans

4. Romania(n)

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rom. ² British  

abbreviation

1. roman (type)

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Rom ³ British  

/ rɒm /

noun

1. a male Gypsy

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ROM ⁴ British  

/ rɒm /

acronym

1. read only memory: a storage device that holds data permanently and cannot in normal circumstances be altered by the programmer

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ROM Scientific  

/ rŏm /

1. Short for read-only memory. Computer hardware that stores programs or data that cannot be added to, modified, or deleted. ROM does not require power to maintain its contents, and is often used to save instructions that enable the computer's operating system to communicate with other hardware.

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ROM Cultural  

1. Acronym for r ead o nly m emory, which refers to a memory system, such as a commercial CD, which can be read but which cannot be altered. (Compare RAM.)

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Sensitive Note

See gypsy.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Rom
  plural
• Roms
  plural

Etymology

Origin of Rom¹

First recorded in 1835–45; from Romani: “man, married man”; compare Sanskrit ḍomba, ḍoma “a low-caste minstrel,” probably from a Dravidian language; compare Kannada ḍomba, ḍoma, Tamil dommara “caste of jugglers”

Origin of ROM²

r(ead)-o(nly) m(emory)

Example Sentences

Rom was finally able to return to Phnom Penh, where AFP was able to speak to him in April.

From Barron's • Jul. 7, 2026

Some who were killed or captured were working at the festival as security guards and ushers, including Eitan Mor, 25, Bar Kupershtein, 23, and Rom Braslavski, 21, who are among those still being held.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 11, 2025

Braslavski's family in a statement said "they managed to break Rom" and pleaded to Israeli and US leaders to bring their son home.

From BBC • Aug. 3, 2025

So I said to Rom, “Come on, have a quick go at this.”

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 5, 2024

And which totally sucked because it meant he would read the rest of the comic during school, and have something lame like Rom out on the way home.

From "Eleanor & Park" by Rainbow Rowell

Related Words

• Romanichal
• tzigane
• zingara
• zingaro