hum

1. 1.

   the state of being or appearing to be actively engaged in an activity

   “they manifested all the busyness of a pack of beavers”

   “there is a constant hum of military preparation”

   Synonymsbusyness

   Broaderaction
2. 2.

   an Islamic fundamentalist group in Pakistan that fought the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s; now operates as a terrorist organization primarily in Kashmir and seeks Kashmir's accession by Pakistan

   SynonymsHarkat-ul-MujahidinHarkat ul-AnsarHUAHarkat ul-MujahedeenAl FaranMovement of Holy Warriors

   Broaderterrorist organization

   Pakistan · terrorism

3. 3.

   a humming noise

   “the hum of distant traffic”

   Synonymshumming

   Broadernoise

Other forms of hum

plural

hums·

past tense or participle

hummed

present participle

humming

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about hum

What does hum mean?

hum means "sing with closed lips". That is the primary sense; the word has 7 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in hum?

hum has 1 syllable: hum. In IPA it is /ˈhʌm/.

What is another word for hum?

Close synonyms include buzz, seethe, thrum, busyness, Harkat-ul-Mujahidin. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is hum a common word?

hum is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.