a b c d "M definition and meaning". Collins English Dictionary. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021 . Retrieved 9 February 2021. 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') [11] M, or m, is the thirteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is em (pronounced / ˈ ɛ m/), plural ems. [1] History Egyptian hieroglyph "n" Some symbols related to M were used by the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet prior to its formal standardization in 1902: [8]

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]). M is the fourteenth most frequently used letter in the English language. a b c d e "What does M stand for?". The Free Dictionary. Archived from the original on 25 November 2020 . Retrieved 9 February 2021.a b Perry, David J. (2006-08-01). "L2/06-269: Proposal to Add Additional Ancient Roman Characters to UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-06-14 . Retrieved 2018-03-24.

Figure Two: "Representative selection of proto-Sinaitic characters with comparison to Egyptian hieroglyphs", (p. 38) Everson, Michael; etal. (2002-03-20). "L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2018-02-19 . Retrieved 2018-03-24.

Origin of M.

m is the standard abbreviation for metre (or meter) in the International System of Units (SI). [4] However, m is also used as an abbreviation for mile. [5] The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu (Μ,μ). Semitic Mem is most likely derived from a " Proto-Sinaitic" ( Bronze Age) adoption of the "water" ideogram in Egyptian writing. The Egyptian sign had the acrophonic value /n/, from the Egyptian word for "water", nt; the adoption as the Semitic letter for /m/ was presumably also on acrophonic grounds, from the Semitic word for "water", *mā(y)-. [2] Use in writing systems Constable, Peter (2003-09-30). "L2/03-174R2: Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Middle Tilde in the UCS" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-10-11 . Retrieved 2018-03-24. M" Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition (1989); Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (1993); "em," op. cit. Ruppel, Klaas; Aalto, Tero; Everson, Michael (2009-01-27). "L2/09-028: Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-10-11 . Retrieved 2018-03-24.