Cam
adv, name, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A turning or sliding piece which imparts motion to a rod, lever or block brought into sliding or rolling contact with it.
- 2 Camera. informal
- 3 Initialism of complementary and alternative medicine. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 4 a rotating disk shaped to convert circular into linear motion wordnet
- 5 A turning or sliding piece which imparts motion to a rod, lever or block brought into sliding or rolling contact with it.; A curved wedge, movable about an axis, used for forcing or clamping two pieces together.
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- 6 A bootleg recording of a film recorded in a movie theater.
- 7 Initialism of common area maintenance. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 8 A ridge or mound of earth. UK, dialectal
"Cum doun t' cam' soid"
- 9 Initialism of computer-aided manufacturing. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 10 A spring-loaded camming device, a spring-loaded device for effecting a temporary belay in a rock crevice.
- 11 Initialism of cockpit area microphone. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 12 Initialism of cell-adhesion molecule. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 13 Initialism of crassulacean acid metabolism. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 14 Initialism of contract air mail (often followed by the route number, eg, CAM 21). US, abbreviation, alt-of, historical, initialism
- 15 Initialism of content-addressable memory. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 1 To go on webcam with someone.
- 1 Alternative form of kam. alt-of, alternative
- 1 A river in Cambridgeshire, England, which passes through Cambridge and joins the Great Ouse.
- 2 A diminutive of the male given name Cameron.
"Cam Smith bounced to shortstop on a 100 mph fastball, and Jacob Melton also grounded out on an 86.9 mph curveball."
- 3 Abbreviation of Campeche: a state of Mexico. abbreviation, alt-of
- 4 A village and civil parish in Stroud district, Gloucestershire, England (OS grid ref SO7400).
- 5 A minor river in Gloucestershire which flows into the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal.
Example
More examples"She asked me if I have a web cam."
Etymology
PIE word *ǵómbʰos Recorded since the 16th century, from Dutch kam (“cog of a wheel; originally, comb”) (cognate with English comb, and preserved in modern Dutch compounds such as kamrad, kamwiel (“cog wheel”)). Doublet of comb.
Clipping of camera.
From Old English Granta, Grantebryċġ, the former name of the modern Cambridge, ultimately from a Celtic word for "crooked," Proto-Celtic *kambos, from late Proto-Indo-European *(s)kambo- (“crooked”), shared with Ancient Greek σκαμβός (skambós).
Shortening.
Related phrases
More for "cam"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.