Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The 13th letter of the modern English alphabet.
  • noun Any of the speech sounds represented by the letter m.
  • noun The 13th in a series.
  • noun Something shaped like the letter M.
  • abbreviation Grammar masculine
  • abbreviation Physics mass
  • abbreviation meter (measurement)
  • abbreviation mile
  • abbreviation minute
  • abbreviation Physics modulus
  • abbreviation Chemistry molality

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An abbreviation of the Latin Medicinæ Doctor, Doctor of Medicine (see doctor, 2); in musical notation, of mano destra (Italian) or main droite (French), ‘right hand,’ indicating a passage to be performed by the right hand.
  • noun An abbreviation of Middle Dutch;
  • noun of months (after) date.
  • noun An abbreviation
  • noun of Latin Musicæ Graduatus. Graduate of Music.
  • An abbreviation
  • of Master of Laws;
  • of Master of Literature;
  • of muzzle-loading.
  • noun An abbreviation of Master of Science;
  • noun of Master of Surgery;
  • noun of month's sight;
  • noun of Latin Memoriæ Sacrum, sacred to the memory (of, etc.).
  • An abbreviation of Methodist Episcopal; of Mining Engineer: as, John Smith, M. E.; of Middle English: used (as Middle English) in the etymologies of this work.
  • noun An abbreviation of Maelzel's metronome. See metronome.
  • noun An abbreviation of the Latin Medicinæ Baccalaureus, Bachelor of Medicine;
  • noun of the Latin Musicæ Baccalaureus, Bachelor of Music;
  • noun of “mark of the beast,” in allusion to the popular belief that the garment described below smacked of popery.
  • As a symbol:
  • M denotes magnetic moment: usually printed in old English; a gaseous pressure of the millionth of an atmosphere.
  • μ denotes magnetic permeability or the specific conductivity of any substance for lines of magnetic force; the coefficient of friction.
  • m stands for the intensity or strength of a magnetic pole.
  • m stands for square meters, m for cubic meters.
  • As an abbreviation:
  • In titles, M. stands also for Marquis, Matthew (a book of the New Testament), and Monsieur.
  • In a ship's log-book, masculine is an abbreviation of moderate.
  • In a chart, masculine stands for mud; in meteorology, for mist; in ophthalmol., for myopia.
  • In pharmacy, M. or masculine stands for macerare (macerate), manipulus (a handful), mensura (measure or by measure), minimum (minim), misce (mix), mistura (mixture).
  • In astronomical tables, M. or masculine (abbreviation of L. meridies) indicates meridian or meridional: 12 M. stands for noon. See A. M. and P. M.
  • In astronomy, M. stands for Messier, referring to his catalogue of 103 nebulæ and star-clusters: thus, 51M. or M.51 is the famous whirlpool nebula.
  • M. stands for Monday; M. or masculine, for mile or miles, mill or mills, month or months, moon, muster; m., for married, masculine, middle, minutes, morning, and the Latin mille (a thousand).
  • noun An abbreviation of Master of the Rolls.
  • noun An abbreviation of mean time.
  • noun See A. M. .
  • noun An abbreviation of Member of Congress.
  • An abbreviation of Major-General.
  • In musical notation, an abbreviation of the French main gauche (left hand), indicating that a note or passage is to be played with the left hand.
  • noun An abbreviation of Member of Parliament.
  • noun An abbreviation of the Latin Magister Chirurgiæ, Master of Surgery;

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Modification of capital letter M, from Ancient Greek letter Μ (M, "Mu").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From upper case roman numeral M (1000), an alteration of ⋈, from ∞, an alteration of ↀ, an alteration of Ⓧ, from encircling X (the roman numeral for ten) to indicate the hundredth ten.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Various abbreviations

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Examples

Comments

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  • "I learned from Florey that the Egyptians used a wavelike symbol for water that the Phoenicians adapted and called mem—thus the letter M. I loved the soothing mindlessness of the exercises, particularly seeing the mmmm's break across the page—a tiny, rolling sea."

    —Emily Yoffe, "Dead Letters: Everyone Has Terrible Handwriting These Days," Slate.com, seen here.

    September 12, 2009

  • Txt/twitterspeak for "am"

    September 30, 2015