gum

CEFRB2

/ɡʌm/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    The soft tissue around the roots of your teeth.

  2. 02

    noun

    A chewy sweet that you do not swallow.

Examples

  • Believe it or not, it came in a pack of gum.

  • Gum got stuck to the bottom of my shoe.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Also pronounced

  • /ɡum/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. To chew, especially of a toothless person or animal.

  2. To deepen and enlarge the spaces between the teeth of (a worn saw), as with a gummer.

  3. The flesh around the teeth.

More examples

In context

  • gum-oleo-resin

  • Do you have a gum to spare?

  • That cheap oil will gum up the engine valves.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

She chewed a piece of mint blank to freshen her breath.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English gom, gome, gomme, goome, gum, gume, gumme, from Old English gōma (“palate”), from Proto-West Germanic *gōmō, from Proto-Germanic *gaumô, *gōmô (“palate”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₂- (“to gape, yawn”). Cognates Cognate with Cimbrian gaumo (“palate”), German Gaum, Gaumen (“palate”), Luxembourgish Gomm, Gumm (“palate”), Yiddish גומען (gumen, “palate”), Danish gumme (“gums”), Icelandic gómur (“gum”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish gom (“palate”); also Latin hio (“to gape, yawn”), Ancient Greek χάσκω (kháskō, “to gape, yawn”), Lithuanian gomurỹs (“palate”), Bulgarian зе́я (zéja, “to gape”), Czech zát, zet (“to gape”), Polish ziać (“to pant”), Russian зия́ть (zijátʹ, “to...