sam
/sæm/verb, adjective, noun
sam is spelled S-A-M: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 44 times per million words in written English, the 2,290th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, sam means “To assemble” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in sam?
| Letters | 3: S-A-M |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 44 times per million words; the 2,290th 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 sam?
Sam appears 44 times per million words in written English, the 2,290th 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 sam?
- /sæm/
Sam 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-Sam.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with sam?
10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sam from its last stressed vowel (/æm/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: mas, asm.
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 sam
- sams present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- samming participle, present
- sammed participle, past
- samen
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does sam mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
UKTo assemble.
- 2
UKTo bring together; join (in marriage, friendship, love, etc.).
- 3
UKTo bring together; collect; put in order; arrange.
- 4
UKTo assemble; come together.
- 5
UKTo coagulate; curdle (milk).
adjective
- 1
Half or imperfectly done.
- 2
Half-heated.
noun
- 1
slangFederal narcotics agent.
noun
- 1
UKinformalSynonym of Dicky Sam (“a man from Liverpool”)
noun
- 1
Initialism of surface-to-air missile.
- 2
Initialism of self-assembled monolayer.
- 3
Initialism of systolic anterior motion.
- 4
Initialism of single abstract method.
- 5
Initialism of split attraction model.
- 6
Initialism of shared appreciation mortgage.
- 7
Initialism of smartass masochist; a brat.
- 8
Initialism of serviceable addressable/available market.
adverb
- 1
obsoleteTogether
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Sam in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense surface-to-air missile:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | FlaRak (Flugabwehrrakete) |
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 sam come from?
From Middle English sammen, samnen, from Old English samnian, ġesamnian (“to collect, assemble, bring together, gather, join, unite, compose, meet, glean”), from Proto-West Germanic *samnōn, from Proto-Germanic *samnōną (“to gather”), from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”). Cognate with Dutch zamelen (“to collect”), German sammeln (“to collect, gather”), Swedish samla (“to gather, collect”), Icelandic samna (“to gather, collect”). More at same.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).