M
Thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet
M (minuscule: m) is the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of several Western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is em (pronounced /ˈɛm/ ⓘ), plural ems.
01History
The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem via the Greek Mu (Μ, μ). Semitic Mem is most likely derived from a "Proto-Sinaitic" (Bronze Age) adoption of the "water" ideogram in Egyptian writing. The Egyptian sign had the acrophonic value /n/, from the Egyptian word for "water", nt; the adoption as the Semitic letter for /m/ was presumably also on acrophonic grounds, from the Semitic word for "water", *mā(y)-.
02Use in writing systems
| Orthography | Phonemes |
|---|---|
| Catalan | /m/ |
| Standard Chinese (Pinyin) | /m/ |
| English | /m/, silent |
| French | /m/, /◌̃/ |
| German | /m/ |
| Portuguese | /m/, /◌̃/ |
| Spanish | /m/, /n/ |
| Turkish | /m/ |
English
In English, ⟨m⟩ represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/.
The Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) says that ⟨m⟩ is sometimes a vowel, such as in words like spasm and in the suffix -ism. In modern terminology, this is described as a syllabic consonant (IPA: /m̩/).
The digraph, "mn," when used in the beginning of words, such as mnemonic, is pronounced as /n/. This digraph is the only instance where the letter ⟨m⟩ is silent.
M is the fourteenth most frequently used letter in the English language.
Other languages
The letter ⟨m⟩ represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/ in the orthography of Latin as well as in those of many modern languages. In Spanish, final ⟨m⟩ is rare and mostly corresponds to /n/, with /m/ being a foreign pronunciation applied only by some speakers in loanwords.
In Washo, lower-case ⟨m⟩ represents a voiced bilabial nasal /m/, while upper-case ⟨M⟩ represents a voiceless bilabial nasal /m̥/.
Other systems
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨m⟩ represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/.
03Other uses
- The Roman numeral M represents the number 1000, though it was not used in Roman times. There is, however, scant evidence that the letter was later introduced in the early centuries A.D. by the Romans.
- Unit prefix M (mega), meaning one million times, and m (milli) meaning one-thousandth.
- m is the standard abbreviation for metre (or meter) in the International System of Units (SI). However, m is sometimes also used as an abbreviation for mile.
- M is used as the unit abbreviation for molarity.
- With money amounts, m or M is ambiguous. In the finance industry, m or M means 1,000. In this context, five million dollars is written $5mm or $5MM. Outside of finance, some people use M like the metric system "mega-" to mean one million and write $5M.
- M often represents male or masculine, especially in conjunction with F for female or feminine.
- In typography, an em dash is a punctuation symbol whose width is similar to that of a capital letter M.
- M is used as a logo by many rapid transit systems, standing for "Metro" (or equivalents in other languages.)
05Other representations
Computing
- U+004D M LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M
- U+006D m LATIN SMALL LETTER M
- U+FF2D Ｍ FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M
- U+FF4D ｍ FULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER M
Other
| NATO phonetic | Morse code |
| Mike |
▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ⓘ |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “M”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Latin letter M.svg by Wikiroulete, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Miehikkala.vaakuna.svg by Unknown author, Public domain
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