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M, or m, is the thirteenth
* The Roman numeral M represents the number 1000 (number), 1000, though it was not used in Ancient Rome, 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 (mega), meaning one million times, and m (milli) meaning one-thousandth.
* m is the standard abbreviation for metre (or meter) in the International System of Units (SI). However, m is also used as an abbreviation for mile.
* M is used as the unit abbreviation for molar concentration, 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" (or equivalents in other languages.)
letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech or none in the case of a silent letter; any of the symbols of an alphabet
* Letterform, the g ...
of the Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from ...
, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of several western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''em'' (pronounced ), plural ''ems''.
History
The letter M is derived from the PhoenicianMem
Mem (also spelled Meem, Meme, or Mim) is the thirteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew ''mēm'' , Aramaic ''mem'' 𐡌, Syriac ''mīm'' ܡ, Arabic ''mīm'' , and Phoenician ''mēm'' 𐤌. Its sound value is . It is also relate ...
via the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
Mu (Μ, μ). Semitic Mem is most likely derived from a " Proto-Sinaitic" (Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
) adoption of the "water" ideogram in Egyptian writing. The Egyptian sign had the acrophonic
Acrophony (; + 'sound') is the naming of grapheme, letters of an alphabetic writing system so that a letter's name begins with the letter itself. For example, Greek letter names are acrophonic: the names of the letters α, β, γ, δ, are spell ...
value , from the Egyptian word for "water", ''nt''; the adoption as the Semitic letter for was presumably also on acrophonic grounds, from the Semitic languages, Semitic word for "water", '':wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Semitic/maʾ-, *mā(y)-''.
Use in writing systems
English
In English orthography, English, represents the voiced bilabial nasal . The Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) 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 (IPA: ). M is the Letter frequency, 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 language, 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 (number), 1000, though it was not used in Ancient Rome, 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 (mega), meaning one million times, and m (milli) meaning one-thousandth.
* m is the standard abbreviation for metre (or meter) in the International System of Units (SI). However, m is also used as an abbreviation for mile.
* M is used as the unit abbreviation for molar concentration, 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" (or equivalents in other languages.)
Related characters
Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet
*M with diacritics: Ḿ, Ḿ ḿ Dot (diacritic), Ṁ ṁ Ṃ ṃ M̃ m̃ ᵯ *International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA-specific symbols related to M: *Ɱ : 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 : Ɯ, Turned M *ꟽ : Inverted M was used in ancient Roman texts to stand for ''mulier'' (woman) *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') *ℳ : currency symbol for German gold mark, MarkAncestors and siblings in other alphabets
*𐤌 : Phoenician alphabet, Semitic letterMem
Mem (also spelled Meem, Meme, or Mim) is the thirteenth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew ''mēm'' , Aramaic ''mem'' 𐡌, Syriac ''mīm'' ܡ, Arabic ''mīm'' , and Phoenician ''mēm'' 𐤌. Its sound value is . It is also relate ...
, from which the following symbols originally derive:
**Μ μ : Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
letter Mu, from which M derives
*** : Coptic alphabet, Coptic letter Me, which derives from Greek Mu
***М м : Cyrillic letter Em (Cyrillic), Em, also derived from Mu
***𐌌 : Old Italic script, Old Italic M, which derives from Greek Mu, and is the ancestor of modern Latin M
**** : Runes, Runic letter Mannaz, which derives from old Italic M
*** : Gothic alphabet, Gothic letter manna, which derives from Greek Mu
Ligatures and abbreviations
*₥ : Mill (currency) * : Trademark symbol * : Service mark symbolOther representations
Computing
Other
Notes
References
External links
* * * {{Latin alphabet, M} ISO basic Latin letters