Drum

How to spell drum

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce drum

What does drum mean?

1. nounA percussion instrument with a skin stretched over a hollow frame, or any similar cylindrical container.
2. verbTo strike a surface repeatedly so as to make a rhythmic sound.

Drum in a sentence

• noun

  He tapped a steady beat on the drum during rehearsal.

• verb

  She would drum her fingers on the desk whenever she felt impatient.

• noun

  The garage stored a fifty litre drum of engine oil.

• verb

  The heavy rain began to drum against the window all afternoon.

Where does drum come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

Drum first appears in English in the middle of the 1500s, borrowed from Dutch or Low German trom or tromme, which named the same percussion instrument. The form is widely thought to be imitative, that is, the word echoes the booming sound the instrument actually makes when it is struck. Related forms turn up across the Germanic languages, including German Trommel, all pointing back to the same sound-mimicking base. Over time the word stretched well beyond music to name any cylinder shaped object that resembles the body of a drum, such as an oil drum or the rotating drum inside a washing machine. The spelling has stayed refreshingly simple, with no silent letters, which is unusual for a borrowing of this age.

How the word is built

• drum (a single root word, of imitative origin; no prefix or suffix)