alarm
pronunciation
How to pronounce alarm in British English:
UK [əˈlɑːm]
How to pronounce alarm in American English:
US [əˈlɑːrm]
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- Noun:
- fear resulting from the awareness of danger
- a device that signals the occurrence of some undesirable event
- an automatic signal (usually a sound) warning of danger
- a clock that wakes sleeper at preset time
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- Verb:
- fill with apprehension or alarm; cause to be unpleasantly surprised
- warn or arouse to a sense of danger or call to a state of preparedness
Word Origin
- alarm
- alarm: [14] Alarm was originally a call to arms. It comes from the Old Italian phrase all’ arme ‘to the weapons!’ This was lexicalized as the noun allarme, which was borrowed into Old French as alarme, and thence into English. The archaic variant alarum seems to have arisen from an emphatic rolling of the r accompanying a prolongation of the final syllable when the word was used as an exclamation.=> arm
- alarm (n.)
- early 14c., from Old French alarme (14c.), from Italian all'arme "to arms!" (literally "to the arms"). An interjection that came to be used as the word for the call or warning (compare alert). Extended 16c. to "any sound to warn of danger or to arouse." Weakened sense of "apprehension, unease" is from 1833. Variant alarum is due to the rolling -r- in the vocalized form. Sometimes in early years anglicized as all-arm. Alarm clock is attested from 1690s (as A Larum clock).
- alarm (v.)
- 1580s, from alarm (n.). Related: Alarmed; alarming.
Example
- 1. Regardless , turning off the alarm is a simple matter , thanks to built-in ultrasonic and activity sensors .
- 2. And I completely forgot about the alarm .
- 3. To find this time subtract 7-8 hours before your alarm time .
- 4. But I was awake long before the alarm went off .
- 5. When the alarm goes off , return to your routine .