hum

/ˈũ/

//ˈũ// intj

The verdict

“hum” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #7,922) as an interjection. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#7,922
frequency rank, Portuguese
409
“H” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - (com realização com alongamento da vogal nasal) expressa dúvida, receio, inquietação, reticência

Corpus desk

Index PT-hum · hum · Portuguese

hum · rank #7,922 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #7,922
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 409
  • PHOTO-FINISH granada

Nearest frequency peer: granada (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Vizinhos de frequência do confusável “hum”

Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo

corpus weight

What this shows As barras situam “hum” face aos lemas portugueses mais próximos por rank, não um reprint da secretária de confusáveis.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

hum vs Hut
33% similar
hum vs hurt
50% similar
hum vs hush
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for hum
PropertyValue
Headwordhum
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechInterjection
IPA/ˈũ/
Letters3
Frequency rank#7,922
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “hum”

A frequência vai do punhado de palavras do dia a dia (esquerda) à cauda longa quase nunca usada (direita).humcai aqui:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

A escala é logarítmica (cada marca ≈ 10× mais rara). Na mesma faixa de raridade aparecem “granada” (#7,921), “Iguaçu” (#7,924), “grace” (#7,919). Entre 409 lemas com “H”, “hum” fica em #7,922. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for hum is neighbouring look-alikes ("Hut", "hurt", …), not just typos; it is aninterjection pronounced /ˈũ/. Frequency #7,922 among 409 “H” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for hum, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Hut", "hurt", "hush", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct Portuguese form is hum, spelled H-U-M.

Definition

  1. 1
    (com realização com alongamento da vogal nasal) expressa dúvida, receio, inquietação, reticência
  2. 2
    (com realização comumente mediana da vogal nasal) expressa compreensão
  3. 3
    (com realização mediana da vogal nasal) expressa apreciação com tom aprovativo, aprovação
  4. 4
    (com realização breve da vogal nasal e comumente prum tom agudo) expressa surpresa
  5. 5
    (com realização com alongamento da vogal nasal) expressa lamentação quando se dá conta ou se é informado de algo

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how hum appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Hum, duvido que ele venha.
  2. Hum, então era isso, tão fácil.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "hum"?
"hum" is spelled H-U-M. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈũ/.
What does "hum" mean?
As an interjection, "hum" means: (com realização com alongamento da vogal nasal) expressa dúvida, receio, inquietação, reticência
What words are commonly confused with "hum"?
"hum" is commonly confused with "Hut", "hurt", "hush". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "hum"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hum" is /ˈũ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "hum" come from?
"hum" is a Portuguese word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Portuguese words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "hum", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Portuguese headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list