Rhum or rum?
rhum is a noun meaning “Alternative form of rum, an alcoholic beverage distilled from sugarcane…”; rum is a noun meaning “A spirit distilled from various preparations of sugarcane, particularly…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) rum is about 35 times as common as rhum.
What is the difference between rhum and rum?
| rhum | rum | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, adjective |
| Meaning | Alternative form of rum, an alcoholic beverage distilled from sugarcane, similar spirits | A spirit distilled from various preparations of sugarcane, particularly fermented cane sugar and molasses A serving of rum |
| Example | ... I went aboard the Fellowship of 100 and 70 Tuns a Flemish bottom, the Master George Luxon of Bittiford in Devonshire, several of my… | ... I went aboard the Fellowship of 100 and 70 Tuns a Flemish bottom, the Master George Luxon of Bittiford in Devonshire, several of my… |
| Forms | rhums | rums |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /ɹʌm/ /ɹʊm/ /ɾʌm/ |
| In writing | about once in every 8 million words | 4.3 times per million words |
Sources: rhum and rum in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of rhum and rum
rhum
- 1
Alternative form of rum, an alcoholic beverage distilled from sugarcane, similar spirits
... I went aboard the Fellowship of 100 and 70 Tuns a Flemish bottom, the Master George Luxon of Bittiford in Devonshire, several of my friends came to bid me farewell, among the…
rum
- 1
A spirit distilled from various preparations of sugarcane, particularly fermented cane sugar and molasses
... I went aboard the Fellowship of 100 and 70 Tuns a Flemish bottom, the Master George Luxon of Bittiford in Devonshire, several of my friends came to bid me farewell, among the…
- 2
UKdatedinformalStrange, peculiar
a rum idea; a rum fellow
- 3
UKcolloquialdatedAny odd person or thing
- 4
Initialism of real user monitoring
- 5
A serving of rum
Jake tossed down three rums
- 6
A kind or brand of rum
Bundaberg is one of my favourite rums
- 7
A similar spirit distilled from similar preparations of sugarbeets, sorghum, etc
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, rhum or rum?
rhum appears about once in every 8 million words; rum 4.3 times per million words.
rhum about once in every 8 million wordsrum 4.3 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search rhum vs rum?
“rhum vs rum” is searched about 480 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“rum vs rhum”, “rhum or rum”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.