dim
/dɪm/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.62 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Indistinct, hazy or unclear.
adj
Disapproving, unfavorable: rarely used outside the phrase take a dim view of.
Example Sentences
- "The lighting was too dim for me to make out his facial features."
- "that sustaining Love / Which, through the web of being blindly wove / By man and beast and earth and air and sea, / Burns bright or dim"
- "He may be a bit dim, but he's not entirely stupid."
- "His vision grew dimmer as he aged."
- "All about me the Red Weed clambered among the ruins, writhing to get above me in the dim. Night, the Mother of Fear and Mystery, was coming upon me."
- "He dimmed the lights and put on soft music."
Etymology
From Middle English dim, dym, from Old English dim, dimm (“dim, dark, gloomy; wretched, grievous, sad, unhappy”), from Proto-West Germanic *dimm, from Proto-Germanic *dimmaz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰem- (“to whisk, smoke; obscure”). Compare Faroese dimmur (“dark”), Icelandic dimmur (“dark”) and dimma (“darkness”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
dim and distant
dim bulb
dim-headed
dim-lit
dim-sighted
dim-witted → dim-wittedness
nice-but-dim
dim out