M
This article needs additional citations for verification. (March 2016) |
M | |
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M m | |
Usage | |
Writing system | 𐌼 |
Other | |
Other letters commonly used with | m(x) |
Associated numbers | 1000 |
Writing direction | Left-to-Right |
ISO basic Latin alphabet |
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AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz |
M, or m, is the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is em (pronounced /ˈɛm/), plural ems.[1]
History
Egyptian hieroglyph "n" |
Phoenician Mem |
Western Greek Mu |
Etruscan M |
Latin M | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
The letter M is derived from the
Use in writing systems
English
In English, ⟨m⟩ represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/.
The Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) says that ⟨m⟩ is sometimes a vowel, in words like spasm and in the suffix -ism. In modern terminology, this is described as a syllabic consonant (IPA /m̩/).
M is the fourteenth most frequently used letter in the English language.
Other languages
The letter ⟨m⟩ represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/ in the orthography of Latin as well as in those of many modern languages.
In Washo, lower-case ⟨m⟩ represents a voiced bilabial nasal /m/, while upper-case ⟨M⟩ represents a voiceless bilabial nasal /m̥/.
Other systems
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨m⟩ represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/.
Other uses
- The
- Unit prefix M (mega), meaning one million times, and m (milli) meaning one-thousandth.[4][5]
- m is the standard abbreviation for metre (or meter) in the International System of Units (SI).[4] However, m is also used as an abbreviation for mile.[5]
- M is used as the unit abbreviation for molarity.[4]
- With money amounts, m or M can mean one million: For example, $5m is five million dollars.[4][5]
- M often represents male or masculine, especially in conjunction with F for female or feminine.[4][5]
- filmseries.
- In typography, an em dashis a punctuation symbol whose width is equal to that of a capital letter M.
Related characters
- M with diacritics: Ḿ ḿ Ṁ ṁ Ṃ ṃ M̃ m̃ ᵯ[6]
- IPA-specific symbols related to M: ɱ ɰ
- Ɱ : Capital M with hook
- Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to M:[7]
- U+1D0D ᴍ LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL M
- U+1D1F ᴟ LATIN SMALL LETTER SIDEWAYS TURNED M
- U+1D39 ᴹ MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL M
- U+1D50 ᵐ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL M
- U+1D5A ᵚ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL TURNED M
- Some symbols related to M were used by the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902:[8]
- U+2098 ₘ LATIN SUBSCRIPT SMALL LETTER M
- U+A7FA ꟺ LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL TURNED M
- The Teuthonista phonetic transcription system uses U+AB3A ꬺ LATIN SMALL LETTER M WITH CROSSED-TAIL[9]
- Other variations used for phonetic transcription:ᶭ
- Ɯ ɯ : Turned M
- ꟽ : Inverted M was used in ancient Roman texts to stand for mulier (woman)[11]
- ꟿ : Archaic M was used in ancient Roman texts to abbreviate the personal name 'Manius' (A regular capital M was used for the more common personal name 'Marcus')[11]
- ℳ : currency symbol for Mark
Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
- 𐤌 : Semitic letter Mem, from which the following symbols originally derive
Ligatures and abbreviations
- ₥ : Mill (currency)
- ™ : Trademark symbol
- ℠ : Service mark symbol
Other representations
Computing
Preview | M | m | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Unicode name | LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M | LATIN SMALL LETTER M | ||
Encodings | decimal | hex | dec | hex |
Unicode | 77 | U+004D | 109 | U+006D |
UTF-8 | 77 | 4D | 109 | 6D |
Numeric character reference | M |
M |
m |
m |
EBCDIC family | 212 | D4 | 148 | 94 |
ASCII 1 | 77 | 4D | 109 | 6D |
- 1 Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.
Other
NATO phonetic
|
Morse code |
Mike |
ⓘ |
Signal flag | Flag semaphore | American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling) | British manual alphabet (BSL fingerspelling )
|
Braille dots-134 Unified English Braille |
References
- ^ "M" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "em," op. cit.
- ^ See F. Simons, "Proto-Sinaitic — Progenitor of the Alphabet" Rosetta 9 (2011): Figure Two: "Representative selection of proto-Sinaitic characters with comparison to Egyptian hieroglyphs", (p. 38) Figure Three: "Chart of all early proto-Canaanite letters with comparison to proto-Sinaitic signs" (p. 39), Figure Four: "Representative selection of later proto-Canaanite letters with comparison to early proto-Canaanite and proto-Sinaitic signs" (p. 40). See also: Goldwasser (2010), following Albright (1966), "Schematic Table of Proto-Sinaitic Characters" (fig. 1 Archived 2016-07-03 at the Wayback Machine).
- ISBN 9780520038981. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
roman numerals.
- ^ a b c d e "What does M stand for?". The Free Dictionary. Archived from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
- ^ a b c d "M definition and meaning". Collins English Dictionary. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
- ^ Constable, Peter (2003-09-30). "L2/03-174R2: Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Middle Tilde in the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-10-11. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
- ^ Everson, Michael; et al. (2002-03-20). "L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-02-19. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
- ^ Ruppel, Klaas; Aalto, Tero; Everson, Michael (2009-01-27). "L2/09-028: Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-10-11. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
- ^ Everson, Michael; Dicklberger, Alois; Pentzlin, Karl; Wandl-Vogt, Eveline (2011-06-02). "L2/11-202: Revised proposal to encode "Teuthonista" phonetic characters in the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-10-11. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
- ^ Constable, Peter (2004-04-19). "L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-10-11. Retrieved 2018-03-24.
- ^ a b Perry, David J. (2006-08-01). "L2/06-269: Proposal to Add Additional Ancient Roman Characters to UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-06-14. Retrieved 2018-03-24.