M
M, or m, is the thirteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the [English alphabet|modern English orthography|English alphabet], the alphabets of several western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is em, plural ems.
History
The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem via the Greek Mu. Semitic Mem is most likely derived from a "Proto-Sinaitic" adoption of the "water" ideogram in Egyptian writing. The Egyptian sign had the acrophonic value, from the Egyptian word for "water", nt; the adoption as the Semitic letter for was presumably also on acrophonic grounds, from the Semitic word for "water", *mā-.Use in writing systems
English
In English, represents the voiced bilabial nasal.The Oxford English Dictionary says that is sometimes a vowel, such as in words like spasm and in the suffix -ism. In modern terminology, this is described as a syllabic consonant.
The digraph, "mn," when used in the beginning of words, such as mnemonic, is pronounced as /n/. This digraph is the only instance where the letter is silent.
M is the fourteenth most frequently used letter in the English language.
Other languages
The letter represents the voiced bilabial nasal in the orthography of Latin as well as in those of many modern languages.In Washo, lower-case represents a voiced bilabial nasal, while upper-case represents a voiceless bilabial nasal.
Other systems
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, represents the voiced bilabial nasal.Other uses
- The Roman numeral M represents the number 1000, though it was not used in Roman times. There is, however, scant evidence that the letter was later introduced in the early centuries A.D. by the Romans.
- Unit prefix M, meaning one million times, and m meaning one-thousandth.
- m is the standard abbreviation for metre in the International System of Units. However, m is sometimes also used as an abbreviation for mile.
- M is used as the unit abbreviation for molarity.
- With money amounts, m or M is ambiguous. In the finance industry, m or M means 1,000. In this context, five million dollars is written $5mm or $5MM. Outside of finance, some people use M like the metric system "mega-" to mean one million and write $5M.
- M often represents male or masculine, especially in conjunction with F for female or feminine.
- In typography, an em dash is a punctuation symbol whose width is similar to that of a capital letter M.
- M is used as a logo by many rapid transit systems, standing for "Metro"
Related characters
Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet
- M with diacritics: Ḿ ḿ Ṁ ṁ Ṃ ṃ M̃ m̃ ᵯ
- IPA-specific symbols related to M:
- Ɱ : Capital M with hook
- Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to M:
- *
- *
- *
- *
- *
- Some symbols related to M were used by the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902:
- *
- *
- The Teuthonista phonetic transcription system uses
- Other variations used for phonetic transcription: ᶆ ᶬ ᶭ
- Ɯ ɯ : Turned M
- ꟽ : Inverted M was used in ancient Roman texts to stand for mulier
- ꟿ : Archaic M was used in ancient Roman texts to abbreviate the personal name 'Manius'
- ℳ : currency symbol for Mark
Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
- ? : Semitic letter Mem, from which the following symbols originally derive:
- *Μ μ : Greek letter Mu, from which M derives
- ** : Coptic letter Me, which derives from Greek Mu
- **М м : Cyrillic letter Em, also derived from Mu
- **? : Old Italic M, which derives from Greek Mu, and is the ancestor of modern Latin M
- *** : Runic letter Mannaz, which derives from old Italic M
- ** : Gothic letter manna, which derives from Greek Mu