hem

C2+ Topic:Clothing & Appearance

US /hɛm/ UK /hɛm/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like ham /ɛ/ vs /æ/

Meanings

1

noun
the bordered edge of a garment; to fold and sew such an edge

She let down the hem of the dress to lengthen it.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · the bordered edge of a... border edge margin fringe trimhemline

Word family

Derived forms hemmerhemminghemline

Related forms hemstitch

Etymology

From Old English hem ('border, edge of a garment'), from Proto-Germanic *hamją, related to the notion of confining or enclosing.

hem Old English *hamją Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Clothing & Appearance

External links

# hem

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /hɛm/
**IPA (UK):** /hɛm/

## Meanings
1. the bordered edge of a garment; to fold and sew such an edge

## Examples
- She let down the hem of the dress to lengthen it.

## Synonyms
- border
- edge
- margin
- fringe
- trim
- hemline

## Derived Forms
- hemmer
- hemming
- hemline

## Related Forms
- hemstitch

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: hem
- Root: *hamją

## Etymology
From Old English hem ('border, edge of a garment'), from Proto-Germanic *hamją, related to the notion of confining or enclosing.

## AI Etymology
hem comes from Old English hem ('border, edge of a garment'), from Proto-Germanic *hamją, related to the notion of confining or enclosing. The history explains the modern form through the named earlier word or formation, without requiring a separate speculative ancestry. In present English, the noun sense is "the bordered edge of a garment; to fold and sew such an edge", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. The same base also appears in related forms such as hemstitch, and in derivatives such as hemmer, hemming, and hemline. Its semantic neighborhood includes border, edge, margin, and fringe, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Old English hem and Proto-Germanic *hamją.

## Topics
- Clothing & Appearance

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