Jamming

How to spell jamming

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce jamming

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does jamming mean?

1. verbForcing something tightly into a space, or causing a mechanism to stick and stop working.
2. verbPlaying music informally and improvising, often with other musicians.
3. verbDeliberately blocking a radio or electronic signal by broadcasting interference.

Jamming in a sentence

• He kept jamming his suitcase shut over the bulging contents.

• The band spent the afternoon jamming in the garage.

• The army was suspected of jamming enemy radio frequencies.

• A stray paperclip was jamming the office shredder.

• She loves jamming on her guitar after a long shift.

• A device for jamming phone signals is illegal in most countries.

Where does jamming come from?

Language of origin: Unknown

This is the present participle of the verb 'jam', a word that surfaced in English in the early 1700s and whose ultimate origin is genuinely uncertain. The leading idea is that 'jam' is imitative, an echo of the abrupt pressing or crushing motion it describes, much like 'bang' or 'thump' imitate their sounds. From the basic sense of pressing things tightly together came the familiar uses: wedging a door, crowding into a space, and the thick fruit preserve, which is 'jammed' or crushed down. The musical sense, an informal session of improvised playing, grew up in jazz culture in the early twentieth century, possibly from the idea of players crowding their ideas together. Because the root verb has a single short vowel and ends in a single consonant, the spelling doubles that final 'm' before -ing, which is the small rule that trips writers who forget the doubling.

How the word is built

• jam (to wedge or squeeze tightly)
• doubled m
• -ing (present participle/gerund)