Aim

How to spell aim

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce aim

What does aim mean?

1. verbTo point or direct something toward a target, or to set out to achieve a particular result.
2. nounA goal or purpose, or the act of directing something at a target.

Aim in a sentence

• verb

  The new policy will aim to cut waiting times in half.

• noun

  His main aim this year is to clear the mortgage.

• verb

  She learned to aim the camera steadily before pressing the shutter.

• noun

  With careful aim, she landed the dart in the centre ring.

Where does aim come from?

Language of origin: French

Aim travels into English from Old French, where the verbs aesmer and esmer meant 'to estimate, reckon, or calculate', and behind those sits the Latin aestimare, meaning 'to value, assess, or appraise'. Because measuring a distance or a price was bound up with judging where something should go, the word drifted from the idea of 'reckoning' toward 'directing one's effort or weapon at a target'. English picked it up in the 1300s, first carrying the sense of estimating or intending, then settling into the familiar meaning of pointing at a goal or a mark. The same Latin aestimare also gives us 'estimate' and 'esteem', so a word about calculation and a word about respect share an ancestor with this small, plain-looking term. The spelling is mercifully simple, which is exactly why it is easy to overlook how far it has wandered from 'to put a value on something'.

How the word is built

• aim (single root, from Old French aesmer/esmer 'to estimate, reckon'; no separable prefix or suffix)