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PlainSpell

lum

/lʌm/noun

lum is a noun meaning “A chimney; also, the top part of a chimney” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled L-U-M and has one syllable, and it appears about once in every 3 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Lum, the name). The plural of lum is lums.

What does lum mean?

noun

  1. 1

    ScotlandA chimney; also, the top part of a chimney.

  2. 2

    ScotlandA ventilating chimney over the shaft of a mine.

  3. 3

    ScotlandA grove or wood; also, a woody valley.

  4. 4

    ScotlandA deep pool, especially one in a riverbed.

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

How do you pronounce lum?

  • US /lʌm/

Lum 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-uk-lum.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of lum

  • lums plural
  • lumb

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

How common is lum?

Lum appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 47,633rd most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Lum, the name.

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

Where does lum come from?

Borrowed from Scots lum, Early Scots lumb; further etymology uncertain, but probably from Cumbric *lümon, related to Welsh llumon (“chimney”) (obsolete), from Proto-Celtic *loimono. Possibly at least influenced by Old French lum (“light”), lume (“cooking fire”) (compare French lumière (“light; cavity or channel within a tube or tubular organ, lumen; opening”)), from Latin lūmen (“light; light source; opening through which light can penetrate such as an air-hole or window; opening or orifice in a water-pipe or funnel”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to see; to shine”).

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