Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- interj. Used to attract attention or to express doubt or warning.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- An utterance designed to attract attention, express doubt, etc.
Wiktionary
- interj. onomatopoeia the sound of a quiet cough or of clearing one's throat
- interj. an exclamation or cough to get attention
- interj. an exclamation of disapproval or annoyance
- interj. an exclamation to indicate sarcasm
- n. A use of the interjection, ahem.
GNU Webster's 1913
- interj. An exclamation to call one's attention; hem.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the utterance of a sound similar to clearing the throat; intended to get attention, express hesitancy, fill a pause, hide embarrassment, warn a friend, etc.
Examples
“Finally, this week's ending illustration is by Naruko Hanaharu, a familiar name amongst certain circles * ahem ahem*.”
“KJ knows I secretly dread the day I start going bald (when this "pig fur" will be gone from the world forever), so the other day she said that she read somewhere that male baldness is caused by an abundance of hormones that usually indicated health in ... ahem ... other areas.”
“If it turns out the book is untrue or exaggerated, he will be all "that doesn't have a place in ahem, ahem, blah blah.”
“July 23rd, 2004 at 2: 47 am ahem is right. but its nice to remember there is a world going on.”
“In plain English - ahem - what we have, in the form of the 11th session of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol and the ninth session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention, is a short sharp meeting that will largely focus on where the two parallel tracks of climate negotiations that made little headway at”
“* That "ahem"-ing you hear in the background is pal Dorian clearing his throat, for some reason.”
“And in my life there is a lot of room for individual improvement before I started "ahem" - ing in the agora.”
“The condition is called misophonia -- literally "hatred of sound" -- and occurs when a common noise, whether it's something like a person chewing loudly, water dripping or someone "ahem"-ing, causes you to become anxious or angry, more so than a typical response, TODAY reported.”
The Huffington Post: Misophonia: When Annoying Noises Send You Into A Rage
“This one is set within the community of orbiting habitats around the planet Yellowstone, known as ahem the Glitter Band.”
“It basically looks like this ugly dude with a sword ahem goes around boinking chicks in the woods.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ahem’.
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Onomatopoetic
words (seemingly) formed in imitation of a natural sound
plash, guff, woof, splash, crash, pow, crack, bang, whoosh, whizz, whallop, fizz and 116 more...
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sound (quiet)
words for quiet sounds
( randomness, descriptive )sigh, murmur, whisper, whir, rustle, patter, hum, snap, hiss(sss), crackle, bleat, peep and 185 more...
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unemphasized interjections
technically interjections, but usually not part of any emotive exclamation
okey-doke, ho-hum, welp, big deal, bother, hmm, iunno, mmkay, nah, crumbs, bummer, pfft and 12 more...
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broken
unable, to, complete, request, sorry, something, has, gone, terribly, wrong, When, the and 35 more...
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Grunts, Sounds, Calls
Aah, achoo, ack, ah, aha, ahem, ah-ha, aw, baa, bah, blah, boo and 64 more...
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One more switchback
Tip of the hat to Stephen, who always tells me "only one more switchback" as we go up the trail. Usually it is a lie, but it still works!
switchback, heavens to murgat..., prosody, catarrh, ice storm, existential, predicament, intermingle, comingle, stolid, zeitgeist, bibliophage and 146 more...
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Permutations
There are 17576 different sequences of three letters (26 x 26 x 26). How many of them occur in words? General rules of engagement: mononyms only, lower case preferred to upper case, short preferred...
aaargh, niqaabi, Isaac, raad, baaed, haaf, laager, aah, kamaaina, Naajaat, aak, aalii and 637 more...
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Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)
Words from 2009 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past' film.
ravishing, juggle, rehearsal, in bulk, hoard, miser, detract, appendage, ordain, slick, scent, innuendo and 68 more...
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exclamations
expletive, blimey, okey dokey, whatchamacallit, oops, ooh, sheesh, lo and behold, phew, golly, bam, yikes and 13 more...
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D'oh!
L I L B...Interjections!
zounds, egad, holy mackeral, yikes, gack, dingbustercaindec..., eek, shazam, gadzooks, blimey, odsbodkins, arrrrrrrgh and 73 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ahem.
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