Drummer

How to spell drummer

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce drummer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does drummer mean?

1. nounA person who plays the drums, especially in a band or orchestra.

Drummer in a sentence

• The band hired a new drummer after the old one quit.

• As a drummer, she practised her rhythms for hours every evening.

Where does drummer come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

This word is built on 'drum', a noun that English picked up in the 1500s, probably from Dutch or Low German 'trom' or 'tromme', an imitative word that simply echoes the dull, repeated thud the instrument makes. The agent ending '-er' was added to mean 'a person who drums', giving us 'drummer'. The single short vowel in 'drum' forces the final 'm' to double before the '-er' suffix, which is the same spelling rule that turns 'run' into 'runner' and 'swim' into 'swimmer'. That doubled 'mm' is the only real spelling point in the word, and it follows the regular pattern for short-vowel verbs and nouns. The imitative root also explains relatives like 'drumming' and the verb 'to drum'.

How the word is built

• drum (the instrument or its action)
• -mer (agent suffix, doubled m from the consonant-doubling rule)