ream

See also: Ream and réam

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹiːm/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Homophone: rheme
• Rhymes: -iːm

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle English reme, rem, from Old English rēam (“cream”), from Proto-West Germanic *raum, from Proto-Germanic *raumaz (“cream”), from Proto-Indo-European *réwgʰmn̥ (“to sour [milk]”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian Room (“cream”), West Frisian rjemme (“cream”), Dutch room (“cream”), German Low German Rahm, Rohm (“cream”), German Rahm (“cream”), Swedish römme (“cream”), Norwegian rømme (“sour cream”), Faroese rómi (“cream”), Icelandic rjómi (“cream”). See also ramekin.

Alternative forms

• reem, raim

Noun

ream

1. (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Cream; also, the creamlike froth on ale or other liquor; froth or foam in general.

Derived terms

• reamy

Verb

ream (third-person singular simple present reams, present participle reaming, simple past and past participle reamed)

1. (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To cream; mantle; foam; froth.
   • 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh:  […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:

     a huge pewter measuring pot […] which, in the language of the hostess, reamed with excellent claret

Etymology 2

Etymology uncertain, possibly a variant of rime (etymology 4) with the East Anglian and Kentish development of Old English /yː/ to /eː/ (the modern spelling would thus be unetymologically for *reem). Doublet of room.

Cognates

• Dutch ruimen (“to empty, evacuate”)
• German räumen (“to make room”)
• Icelandic rýma (“to make room, clear”).

Verb

ream (third-person singular simple present reams, present participle reaming, simple past and past participle reamed)

1. (transitive) To enlarge (a hole), especially using a reamer; to bore (a hole) wider.

   Synonym: rime

2. (transitive) To remove (material) by reaming.
3. (transitive) To remove burrs and debris from inside (something, such as a freshly bored hole) using a tool.

   Synonym: rime

4. To shape or form, especially using a reamer.
5. (slang, vulgar, by extension from sense of enlarging a hole) To sexually penetrate in a rough and painful way.
6. (slang) To yell at or berate.

   Synonym: ream out

Alternative forms

• reem, rim

Synonyms

• (to sexually penetrate): dig out, nail, root, tap; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

Derived terms

• ream job

Translations

to enlarge a hole

• Bulgarian: райберовам (rajberovam)
• Catalan: barrinar (ca)
• Czech: rozšířit otvor pf
• Finnish: avartaa (fi), aarporata
• French: aléser (fr)
• German: reiben (de) (jargon), aufbohren (de) (informal)
• Polish: rozwiercać, poszerzać (pl)
• Russian: развёртывать (ru) n (razvjórtyvatʹ), рассве́рливать (ru) n (rassvérlivatʹ)
• Spanish: escariar (es)
• Swedish: brotscha, upprymma (sv)

to shape or form, especially using a reamer

• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: aarporata

to remove material by reaming

• Bulgarian: райберовам (rajberovam)
• Catalan: barrinar (ca)
• Czech: vystružit pf
• Finnish: aarporata

to remove burrs and debris from a freshly bored hole

• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• German: entgraten (de)

slang: to yell at or berate

• Bulgarian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: vaahdota (fi), keuhkota (fi)

slang: to sexually penetrate in a rough and painful way

• Bulgarian: поря (bg) (porja)
• Finnish: survoa (fi)

Etymology 3

From Middle English reme, from Old French raime, rayme (“ream”) (French rame), from Catalan raima (“ream”), from Arabic رِزْمَة (rizma, “bundle”).

Alternative forms

• reme (obsolete)

Noun

ream (plural reams)

1. A bundle, package, or quantity of paper, nowadays usually containing 500 sheets.

   Coordinate terms: bale, bundle, quire

   1. (by extension, chiefly in the plural, figurative, law) An extremely large quantity of documents, data, or information that supports a claim, investigation, or case.

      The accountants requested reams of financial records.

   2. (by extension, chiefly in the plural) An abstract large amount of something.

      Synonyms: bunch, load, pile; see also Thesaurus:lot

      I can't go – I still have reams of work left.

      • 2025 December 11, Charlie Campbell, Andrew R. Chow and Billy Perrigo, “The Architects of AI Are TIME’s 2025 Person of the Year”, in Time‎^[1]:

        A large language model (LLM), the technology underpinning chatbots like ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, is a type of neural network, a computer program different from typical software. By feeding it reams of data, engineers train the models to spot patterns and predict what “tokens,” or fragments of words, should come next in a given sequence.

Derived terms

• printer's ream
• reamful

Translations

bundle of paper

• Bulgarian: топ (bg) m (top)
• Catalan: raima (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 令 (zh) (lǐng)

• Czech: rys (cs) m
• Dutch: riem (nl) m
• Finnish: riisi (fi)
• French: rame (fr) f, rame de papier (fr) f, ramette (fr) f
• Galician: resma (gl) f
• German: Ries (de) n
• Hungarian: rizsma (hu)
• Indonesian: rim (id)
• Irish: réam m
• Italian: risma (it)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ris (no) n

• Polish: ryza (pl) f
• Portuguese: resma (pt) f
• Spanish: resma (es) f
• Swedish: ris (sv) n
• Tagalog: resma
• Thai: รีม (th) (riim)
• Welsh: rîm f

abstract large amount

• Bulgarian: куп (bg) m (kup)
• Finnish: kasa (fi), läjä (fi), tukku (fi)
• German: Menge (de) f
• Irish: uafás m
• Welsh: llond gwlad m, pentwr (cy) m

See also

• Units of paper quantity on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• mera, Amer., rame, mear, Erma, Maré, Maer, Mera, amer., Arem, arme, ramé, mare

Friulian

Etymology

Probably from Latin regimen, regimine. Compare French royaume (Old French reaume, reiame), Occitan reialme, Romansh reginam.

Noun

ream m (plural reams)

1. kingdom

Related terms

• re
• regn
• reâl

Latin

Noun

ream f

1. accusative singular of rea

Middle English

Noun

ream

1. alternative form of rem

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *raum, from Proto-Germanic *raumaz.

Cognate with Middle Low German rōm, Middle Dutch room, Old High German roum (German Rahm), Old Norse rjúmi (Icelandic rjómi, Norwegian rømme).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ræ͜ɑːm/

Noun

rēam m

1. cream

Descendants

• Middle English: reme, rem, ryme
  • English: ream
  • Scots: ream, reme, reim
  • Yola: reem, rhyme

Scots

Etymology

Late Middle English, from Old English ream (“cream”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rim/

Noun

ream (uncountable)

1. (food): cream
2. (ointment): cream