er

Meanings

1. 1
   intj

   a sound used while hesitating or searching for words

   Er, could you repeat the question?

2. 2
   noun

   an occurrence of the hesitation sound er

   Her answer contained several ers and long pauses.

3. 3
   verb

   to make the sound er while hesitating

   The witness began to er and pause before every answer.

4. 4
   pron

   eye dialect: a reduced pronunciation of her; also used in literary dialect for of or or

   I expected 'er at eight, or perhaps nine.

The hesitation word is an imitative spelling of a common filled pause. Literary er can separately represent unstressed regional pronunciations of her, of, or or; those eye-dialect uses are unrelated to the hesitation interjection.

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