norm
/noɹm/noun, verb
norm is spelled N-O-R-M: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 8.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,910th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Norm, the name). As a noun, norm means “That which is normal or typical” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of norm is norms.
How many letters and syllables are in norm?
| Letters | 4: N-O-R-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 8.5 times per million words; the 7,910th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 norm?
Norm appears 8.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,910th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Norm, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce norm?
- UK /nɔːm/
- US /noɹm/
- Australia /noːm/
Norm 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-norm.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-norm.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with norm?
4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as norm from its last stressed vowel (/oɹm/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: morn.
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 norm
- norms plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- norming participle, present
- normed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does norm mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
That which is normal or typical.
Unemployment is the norm in this part of the country.
- 2
A rule that is imposed by regulations and/or socially enforced by members of a community.
Not eating your children is just one of those societal norms.
- 3
A required level of achievement.
- 4
A sentence with non-descriptive meaning, such as a command, permission, or prohibition.
- 5
if v ne 0 then ‖v‖ ne 0;
- 6
given a scalar k, ‖kv‖=|k|·‖v‖, where |k| is the absolute value of k;
- 7
given two vectors v,w, ‖v+w‖<‖v‖+‖w‖ (the triangle inequality).
- 8
Any of several generalizations of the above: a field norm, ideal norm, etc.
verb
- 1
To endow (a vector space, etc.) with a norm.
noun
- 1
Initialism of naturally occurring radioactive materials.
- 2
Initialism of nonmobile older rural male, the target conservative informant for documenting dialects and regional accents.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Norm in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | norme , normer |
| German | Regel, Norm , normieren |
| Portuguese | norma |
| Spanish | norma , normar |
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 norm come from?
From Latin norma (“a carpenter's square, a rule, a pattern, a precept”). Doublet of norma.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).