Lem

name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·1 syllable ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Originally Lunar Excursion Module, latterly Lunar Module. US
  2. 2
    a spacecraft that carries astronauts from the command module to the surface of the moon and back wordnet
  3. 3
    Law of excluded middle.

    "What constructive mathematicians know is that there are mathematical universes in which sets are like topological spaces and properties are like open sets. In fact, these universes are well-known to classical mathematicians (they are called toposes), but they look at them from “the outside”. When we consider what mathematicians who live in such a universe see, we discover many fascinating kinds of mathematics, which tend to be constructive. The universe of classical mathematics is special because in it all sets are like discrete topological spaces. In fact, one way of understanding LEM is “all spaces/sets are discrete”. Is this really such a smart thing to assume? If for no other reason, LEM should be abandoned because it is quite customary to consider “continuous” and “discrete” domains in applications in computer science and physics. So what gives mathematicians the idea that all domains are discrete?"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
  2. 2
    Clipping of Leamington Spa. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, informal

    "Went down to Lem the other day but the weather was abysmal."

Example

More examples

"Stanisław Lem was born in 1921 in Lviv, Poland (now Ukraine)."

Etymology

Etymology 1

* As a Dutch and North Germanic surname, shortened from Lambrecht or Lempert. See Lambert. * As a Chinese surname, spelling variant of Lim.

Etymology 2

Clipping of Leamington Spa.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.