same
/seɪm/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.80 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Not different or other; not another or others; not different as regards self; selfsame; identical.
adj
Lacking variety from; indistinguishable.
adj
Used to express the unity of an object or person which has various different descriptions or qualities.
adj
A reply of confirmation of identity.
Example Sentences
- "I realised I was the same age as my grandfather had been when he joined the air force."
- "Even if the twins are identical, they are still not the same person, unlike Mark Twain and Samuel Clemens."
- "Peter and Anna went to the same high school: the high school to which Peter went is the high school to which Anna went."
- "Our space may be really same (of equal curvature), but its degree of curvature may change as a whole with the time."
- "I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper."
- "If two persons bore the same name, and confusion was likely to be caused, ambiguity was avoided by adding the name of the father […]"
Etymology
From Middle English same, from Old Norse samr (“same”) and/or Old English same, sama (“same”) in the phrase swā same (swā) (“in like manner, in the same way (as)”), both from Proto-Germanic *samaz (“same”), from Proto-Indo-European *somHós (“same”). Doublet of some and -some. Cognates Cognate with Scots samin (“same, like, together”), Dutch samen (“together”), Danish samme (“same”), Swedish samma (“same”), Norwegian Bokmål samme (“same”), Norwegian Nynorsk same (“same”), Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌼𐌰 (sama), a weak adjectival form, Ancient Greek ὁμός (homós, “same”), Old Irish som, Russian са́мый (sámyj), Sanskrit सम (samá), Persian هم (ham, “also, same”), Finnish sama (“same”), Estonian sama (“same”). Unlikely to be related to Malay and Indonesian sama (“same, equal, together, exactly like”) and other similar words in Austronesian languages, based on cognates found in Oceanic languages such as Lauan dama (“mate, fellow, corresponding part; exactly like, the same”), 'Are'are tama (“in line, in pairs”); and Malagasy samy (“both, each, everyone; same”), which rarely to never had any direct contact with Indo-European speakers in precolonialism (except Malay and most regional languages of Indonesia, e.g. Javanese and Sundanese). All of which originated from Proto-Austronesian *sama (“both, each, everyone, fellow, together, corresponding part; exactly like, in pairs, in line; same”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /seɪm/
- British English: /seɪm/