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fume

UK /fjuːm/noun, verb

fume is a noun meaning “A gas or vapour/vapor that is strong-smelling or dangerous to inhale” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-U-M-E and has one syllable, and it appears about once in every 2 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of fume is fumes.

What does fume mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A gas or vapour/vapor that is strong-smelling or dangerous to inhale.

    Don't stand around in there breathing the fumes while the adhesive cures.

  2. 2

    A material that has been vaporized from the solid or liquid state to the gas state and re-coalesced to the solid state.

    Lead fume is a greyish powder, mainly comprising lead sulfate.

  3. 3

    Rage or excitement which deprives the mind of self-control.

  4. 4

    Anything unsubstantial or airy; idle conceit; vain imagination.

  5. 5

    The incense of praise; inordinate flattery.

  6. 6

    obsoleteA passionate person.

verb

  1. 1

    To expose (something) to fumes; specifically, to expose wood, etc., to ammonia in order to produce dark tints.

  2. 2

    To apply or offer incense to.

  3. 3

    To emit fumes.

  4. 4

    To pass off in fumes or vapours.

  5. 5

    To express or feel great anger.

    He’s still fuming about the argument they had yesterday.

  6. 6

    To be as in a mist; to be dulled and stupefied.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce fume?

  • UK /fjuːm/

Fume has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-fume.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of fume

  • fumes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • fuming participle, present
  • fumed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is fume?

Fume appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 45,363rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you abbreviate fume?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of fume: DFM.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Fume in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanRauch, Qualm (gas or vapor that is strong-smelling or…), rauchen, qualmen (to emit fumes), schäumen (to express or feel great anger)
Portuguesevapor (gas or vapor that is strong-smelling or…), fumegar (to emit fumes)
Spanishhumo, jumo, gas (gas or vapor that is strong-smelling or…), humear (to emit fumes), echar humo, trinar (to express or feel great anger)
Frenchfulminer (to express or feel great anger)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does fume come from?

From Middle English fume, from Old French fum (“smoke, steam, vapour”), from Latin fūmus (“vapour, smoke”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰuh₂mós (“smoke”), from *dʰewh₂- (“to smoke, raise dust”). Doublet of thymus and thymos. More at dun, dusk, dust.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).