M
M m
Usage
Writing system	Latin script
Type	Alphabetic and Logographic
Language of origin	Latin language
Phonetic usage	[m] [ɱ] [n] [n̼] /ɛm/
Unicode codepoint	U+004D, U+006D
Alphabetical position	13 Numerical value: 1000
History
Development	Μ μ 𐌌 M m
Time period	~-700 to present
Descendants	• ₥  • ™  • ℠  • ᴟ  • ꬺ  • ꟽ ɯ ɰ  • ꟿ  • ᛗ
Sisters	М Ӎ מ ם م ܡ מּ ﬦ Ⰿ ࠌ 𐌼
Other
Other letters commonly used with	m(x)
Associated numbers	1000
Writing direction	Left-to-Right
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

ISO basic Latin alphabet
AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz
v t e

M, or m, is the thirteenth letter of 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 /ˈɛm/), plural ems.^[1]

History

Egyptian hieroglyph "n"	Phoenician Mem	Western Greek Mu	Etruscan M	Latin M

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

English

In English, ⟨m⟩ represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/.

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.

Other languages

The letter ⟨m⟩ represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/ in the orthography of Latin as well as in those of many modern languages.

In Washo, lower-case ⟨m⟩ represents a voiced bilabial nasal /m/, while upper-case ⟨M⟩ represents a voiceless bilabial nasal /m̥/.

Other systems

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨m⟩ represents the voiced bilabial nasal /m/.

Other uses

• The Roman numeral M represents the number 1000, though it was not used in Roman times. There is, however, scant evidence that the letter was later introduced in the early centuries A.D. by the Romans.^[3]
• Unit prefix M (mega), meaning one million times, and m (milli) meaning one-thousandth.^[4][5]
• 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]
• M is used as the unit abbreviation for molarity.^[4]
• With money amounts, m or M can mean one million: For example, $5m is five million dollars.^[4][5]
• M often represents male or masculine, especially in conjunction with F for female or feminine.^[4][5]
• M (James Bond) is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's James Bond book and film series.
• In typography, an em dash is a punctuation symbol whose width is equal to that of a capital letter M.

Related characters

Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet

• M with diacritics: Ḿ ḿ Ṁ ṁ Ṃ ṃ M̃ m̃ ᵯ^[6]
• IPA-specific symbols related to M: ɱ ɰ
• Ɱ : Capital M with hook
• Uralic Phonetic Alphabet-specific symbols related to M:^[7]
  • 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 personal name 'Manius' (A regular capital M was used for the more common personal name 'Marcus')^[11]
• 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

Other representations

Computing

¹ Also for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

Other

NATO phonetic	Morse code
Mike	▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ⓘ

Signal flag	Flag semaphore	American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling)	British manual alphabet (BSL fingerspelling)	Braille dots-134 Unified English Braille