M

M, or m, is the thirteenth letter of the modern English alphabet

M
and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its name in English is em
(pronounced /ˈɛm/), plural ems.[1]

Mm
Contents (See below)

History
Use in writing systems
Other uses
Related characters
Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet
Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets
Ligatures and abbreviations
Computing codes
Other representations Usage
References Writing system Latin script
External links Type Alphabetic and
Logographic
Language of Latin language
History origin

Egyptian hieroglyph Phoenician Etruscan Greek

Latin Phonetic usage [m]

"n" Mem M Mu M [ɱ]

[n]

[n̼ ]

/ɛm/
The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Unicode U+004D,
Mu (Μ,  μ). Semitic Mem is most likely derived from a "Proto- codepoint U+006D
Sinaitic" (Bronze Age) adoption of the "water" ideogram in
Egyptian writing. The Egyptian sign had the acrophonic value Alphabetical 13

/n/, from the Egyptian word for "water", nt; the adoption as the position Numerical
Semitic letter for /m/ was presumably also on acrophonic value: 1000
grounds, from the Semitic word for "water", *mā(y)-.[2] History
Development
Use in writing systems
The letter ⟨m⟩ represents the bilabial nasal consonant sound [m]
in the orthography of Latin as well as in that of many modern
languages, and also in the International Phonetic Alphabet. In
English, 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 ]).
Μμ
In Washo, lower-case ⟨m⟩ represents a typical em sound, while 𐌌
upper-case ⟨M⟩ represents a voiceless em sound.
M
m
Other uses
Time period ~-700 to
The Roman numeral M represents the number 1000, though it
present
was not used in Roman times. There is, however, scant
evidence that the letter was later introduced in the early Descendants  • ₥

centuries A.D. by the Romans.[3]  • ™

Unit prefix M (mega), meaning one million times, and m (milli)  • ℠

meaning one-thousandth.[4][5]  • ᴟ

m is the standard abbreviation for metre (or meter) in the  • ꬺ

International System of Units (SI).[4] However, m is also used  • ꟽ ɯ ɰ

as an abbreviation for mile.[5]  • ꟿ

M is used as the unit abbreviation for molarity.[4]  • ᛗ

With money amounts, m means one million: For example, Sisters М

$5m is five million dollars.[4][5] Ӎ

M often represents male or masculine, especially in ‫

מ‬
conjunction with F for female or feminine.[4][5] ‫
ם‬
M (James Bond) is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's ‫
م‬
James Bond book and film series. ‫
ܡ‬
In typography, an em dash is a punctuation symbol whose ‫
ּמ‬
width is equal to that of a capital letter M.
‫
ﬦ‬

Related characters Ⰿ

𐌼
Descendants and related characters in the Latin
Variations (See below)
alphabet Other
M with diacritics: Ḿ ḿ Ṁ ṁ Ṃ ṃ M̃ m̃ ᵯ[6] Other letters m(x)
IPA-specific symbols related to M: ɱ ɰ commonly used
Ɱ : Capital M with hook with
Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to M:[7] Associated 1000
numbers
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:[10] ᶆ ᶬ 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 Styled letter M in the
personal name 'Manius' (A regular capital M was used for the more coat of arms of
common personal name 'Marcus')[11] Miehikkälä
ℳ : currency symbol for Mark

Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

𐤌 : Semitic letter Mem, from which the following symbols originally derive
Μ μ : Greek letter Mu, from which M derives

Ⲙ ⲙ : Coptic letter Me, which derives from Greek Mu

М м : Cyrillic letter Em, also derived from Mu
𐌌 : Old Italic M, which derives from Greek Mu, and is the ancestor of modern Latin M

ᛗ : Runic letter Mannaz, which derives from old Italic M

𐌼 : Gothic letter manna, which derives from Greek Mu

Ligatures and abbreviations

₥ : Mill (currency)
™ : Trademark symbol
℠ : Service mark symbol

Computing codes
 Character information

Preview M m
Unicode name LATIN CAPITAL LETTER M LATIN SMALL LETTER M

Encodings decimal hex decimal 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 representations
NATO phonetic Morse code

Mike
  ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ 

American Braille dots-

British manual
Signal flag manual 134

Flag semaphore alphabet (BSL

alphabet (ASL Unified
fingerspelling)
fingerspelling) English Braille

References
1. "M" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International
Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "em," op. cit.
2. 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 (http://ww
w.apocalypse2008-2015.com/images/Proto-Sinaitic_Table.gif)).
3. Gordon, Arthur E. (1983). Illustrated Introduction to Latin Epigraphy (https://archive.org/details/illu
stratedintro0000gord). University of California Press. pp. 45 (https://archive.org/details/illustratedin
tro0000gord/page/45). ISBN 9780520038981. Retrieved 3 October 2015. "roman numerals."
4. "What does M stand for?" (https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/m). The Free Dictionary.
Retrieved 9 February 2021.
 5. "M definition and meaning" (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/m_1). Collins
English Dictionary. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
6. Constable, Peter (2003-09-30). "L2/03-174R2: Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Middle
Tilde in the UCS" (https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03174r2-mid-tilde.pdf) (PDF).
7. Everson, Michael; et al. (2002-03-20). "L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the
UCS" (https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02141-n2419-uralic-phonetic.pdf) (PDF).
8. Ruppel, Klaas; Aalto, Tero; Everson, Michael (2009-01-27). "L2/09-028: Proposal to encode
additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet" (https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-
n3571-upa-additions.pdf) (PDF).
9. 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" (https://www.unic
ode.org/L2/L2011/11202-n4081-teuthonista.pdf) (PDF).
10. Constable, Peter (2004-04-19). "L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the
UCS" (https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf) (PDF).
11. Perry, David J. (2006-08-01). "L2/06-269: Proposal to Add Additional Ancient Roman Characters
to UCS" (https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06269-add-roman.pdf) (PDF).

External links
Media related to M at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition of M at Wiktionary
The dictionary definition of m at Wiktionary

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This page was last edited on 4 November 2021, at 16:09 (UTC).

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