gram
pronunciation
How to pronounce gram in British English:
UK [ɡræm]
How to pronounce gram in American English:
US [ɡræm]
-
- Noun:
- a metric unit of weight equal to one thousandth of a kilogram
Word Origin
- gram
- gram: [18] Gram, or gramme as it is sometimes spelled, was borrowed at the end of the 18th century from French gramme, the term adopted in 1799 as the basic unit of weight in the metric system. The word itself goes back via late Latin gramma ‘small unit’ to Greek grámma (source of English grammar), which originally meant ‘letter of the alphabet’ but later came to be used for ‘small weight’.=> grammar
- gram (n.)
- also gramme, metric unit of weight, 1797, from French gramme (18c.), from Late Latin gramma "small weight," from Greek gramma "small weight," a special use of the classical word meaning "a letter of the alphabet" (see -gram). Adopted into English about two years before it was established in France as a unit in the metric system by law of 19 frimaire, year VIII (1799). "There seems to be no possible objection to adopting the more convenient shorter form, except that the -me records the unimportant fact that the word came to us through French" [Fowler].
Example
- 1. Then they chose one gram for weighing water in a cubic centimetre .
- 2. A gram now costs about 20 - half the price of cocaine .
- 3. One gram of ground ginger is equivalent to about 1 / 2 teaspoon .
- 4. As a going away present the alternative care dispensary gave each customer a free gram of high-quality pot .
- 5. This painstaking process yields five tonnes a year , but he cannot bear to sell a gram of it .