rum
/ɹʌm/noun, adjective
rum is spelled R-U-M: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.3 times per million words in written English, the 12,397th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Rum, the name). People search “rhum vs rum” about 480 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, rum means “A spirit distilled from various preparations of sugarcane, particularly fermented cane sugar and molasses” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of rum is rums.
How many letters and syllables are in rum?
| Letters | 3: R-U-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.3 times per million words; the 12,397th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with |
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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is rum?
Rum appears 4.3 times per million words in written English, the 12,397th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Rum, 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 rum?
- US /ɹʌm/
- /ɹʊm/
- /ɾʌm/
Rum 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-rum.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with rum
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: rhum.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with rum?
8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as rum from its last stressed vowel (/ʌm/):
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 rum
- rums plural
- rhum
- rummer comparative
- rummest superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does rum mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 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 rest Captain Thomas Wannerton who drank to me a pint of kill-
- 2
A serving of rum.
Jake tossed down three rums.
- 3
A kind or brand of rum.
Bundaberg is one of my favourite rums.
- 4
A similar spirit distilled from similar preparations of sugarbeets, sorghum, etc.
- 5
obsoleteslangA strange person or thing.
- 6
obsoleteslangA country parson.
- 7
UKcolloquialdatedAny odd person or thing.
- 8
rareThe card game rummy.
noun
- 1
Initialism of real user monitoring.
adjective
- 1
obsoleteFine, excellent, valuable.
having a rum time
- 2
UKdatedinformalStrange, peculiar.
a rum idea; a rum fellow
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Rum in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense distilled spirit:
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 rum come from?
In common use since at least 1654, of uncertain origin.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).