IM
noun
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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:
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 just love racing in these environments and it brings something special out of me. Back-to-back silvers in the 200m IM is pretty cool and what a night it's been."
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2024
Meanwhile, SAIC’s IM Motors has filed an intellectual property application for an in-car plant-care system, which will collect rain from the roof and water generated by the vehicle’s cooling system.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 18, 2024
I’m sure my mom will eventually allow me access to the Internet and we’ll be able to IM again, but it won’t be enough.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
“A small subset of them said, ‘Yes, I agree with you’ while others think I’m the weird friend and they don’t necessarily get it or believe it,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
But, he says, "I'm not sure if it helps, if the memory helps me to keep climbing or it makes me stop."
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
“That would be something to see,” he said, “before I’m back in the earth.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
“I’m personally more interested in leaning towards local burns because I think that I’m more likely to find community and true connection there,” Dandy, a twenty-something from the Seattle area, said.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
I’m no longer the boy in the cotton field.
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
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
Entitled Education for Ministry, Feilding's work concludes that seminary teaching tends to be evangelically uninspiring and professionally im- practical.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
He also believed that literature is im- portant and - powerful enough to change people for better and worse.
From Time Magazine Archive
Embed, em-bed′, Imbed, im-, v.t. to place in a mass of matter: to lay, as in a bed.—n.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
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
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
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
Town and river names in -is regularly have -im, -ī.
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 sensed it meant something a lot like zolst im derhargenen.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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
He qualified in the 200 and 400 IMs and the 200 backstroke.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 1, 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
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
A couple seconds after I accept it, she IMs me.
From "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan
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
It was a long bus ride and I must have dozed off a little -- staying up late IMing with Ange was hard on my sleep-schedule, since Mom still expected me down for breakfast.
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.
