Tham

//tʌm// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Initialism of tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane, alternative form of tris. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The script traditionally used for Buddhist religious study in the vicinity of Northern Thailand and Laos.
  2. 2
    A surname.
  3. 3
    The Lao variant of the above.

    "In actuality, however, in many cases the use of a given script denotes less the content of a given text than its social use. Works in Tham are typically stored and performed inside the temple, whereas writings recorded in Lao are kept and performed in private homes."

Synonyms

All synonyms
tai tham

Example

More examples

"The 12 boys and the coach got trapped on June 23 when they set out to explore the Tham Luang cave after a soccer workout."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Tham is the local pronunciation of the word for dharma in the area where the script is used, e.g. Thai ธรรม (tam), Lao ທຳ (tham) and Northern Thai ᨵᩢᨾ᩠ᨾ᩺/ธัมม์, all derived from Pali dhamma. Tham script is a localisation of the phrase dharma script.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Cantonese 譚／谭 (taam4), etc.

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