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PlainSpell

ham

UK /ˈhæm/noun, verb

ham is spelled H-A-M: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,878th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, ham means “The region back of the knee joint; the popliteal space; the hock” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of ham is hams.

How many letters and syllables are in ham?

Letters3: H-A-M
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing13 times per million words; the 5,878th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is ham?

Ham appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,878th 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 pronounce ham?

  • UK /ˈhæm/
  • UK [ˈhæm] ~ [ˈham]
  • British /ˈham/

Ham 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-ham.ogg, LL-Q7979-Soundguys--ham.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with ham

Also written: home.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with ham?

10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as ham from its last stressed vowel (/æm/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: mah.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of ham

  • hams plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • hamming participle, present
  • hammed participle, past

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

What does ham mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The region back of the knee joint; the popliteal space; the hock.

  2. 2

    A thigh and/or buttock of a hog slaughtered for meat; (occasionally) the corresponding cut from some other animal.

  3. 3

    Meat from the thigh and/or buttock of a hog cured for food.

    a little piece of ham for the cat

  4. 4

    The back of the thigh of humans or certain other animals.

  5. 5

    informalElectronic mail that is wanted; email that is not spam or junk mail.

  6. 6

    An overacting or amateurish performer; an actor with an especially showy or exaggerated style.

  7. 7

    An amateur radio operator.

verb

  1. 1

    To overact; to act with exaggerated emotions.

    Near-synonym: camp it up

noun

as HAM
  1. 1

    Initialism of his apostolic majesty, the title given to a number of historical kings of Hungary.

adverb

as HAM
  1. 1

    Initialism of hard as a motherfucker, extremely hard, extremely intensely, crazily.

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

Ham in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanKniekehle (region back of the knee joint), Schinken (thigh and buttock of any animal slaughtered for…), Schmierenkomödiant, Schmierenschauspieler (actor with an exaggerating style), Amateurfunker, Amateurfunkerin (ham radio operator)
Portuguesepóplite (region back of the knee joint), canastrão (actor with an exaggerating style), radioamador (ham radio operator), presunto, pernil (thigh of a hog cured for food)
Spanishpernil, jamón, lunada (thigh and buttock of any animal slaughtered for…), comicastro, histriónico (actor with an exaggerating style), radioamador (ham radio operator)
Frenchcabotin, cabotine (actor with an exaggerating style), radioamateur (ham radio operator), jambon (thigh of a hog cured for food), cabotiner (overact)

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 ham come from?

Inherited from Middle English hamme, from Old English hamm (“inner or hind part of the knee, ham”), from Proto-West Germanic *hammu, from Proto-Germanic *hamō, *hammō, *hanmō, from Proto-Indo-European *kónh₂m (“leg”).

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

What to look up after ham