ream
/ɹiːm/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.44 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Cream; also, the creamlike froth on ale or other liquor; froth or foam in general.
British usage
verb
To remove burrs and debris from inside (something, such as a freshly bored hole) using a tool.
Transitive verb
verb
To shape or form, especially using a reamer.
Example Sentences
- "a huge pewter measuring pot […] which, in the language of the hostess, reamed with excellent claret"
- "The accountants requested reams of financial records."
- "I can't go – I still have reams of work left."
- "A large language model (LLM), the technology underpinning chatbots like ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, is a type of neural network, a computer program different from typical software. By feeding it reams of data, engineers train the models to spot patterns and predict what “tokens,” or fragments of words, should come next in a given sequence."
Etymology
From Middle English rem, reme, from Old English rēam (“cream”), from Proto-West Germanic *raum, from Proto-Germanic *raumaz (“cream”), from Proto-Indo-European *réwgʰmn̥ (“to sour [milk]”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Room (“cream”), West Frisian rjemme (“cream”), Dutch room (“cream”), German Low German Rahm, Rohm (“cream”), German Rahm (“cream”), Swedish römme (“cream”), Norwegian rømme (“sour cream”), Faroese rómi (“cream”), Icelandic rjómi (“cream”). See also ramekin.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- British usage
- Transitive verb
- Slang