dim

Clipping of English Dime.

dim

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Dime.

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Dime terms

Clipping of English dimension.

dim

1. (mathematics) dimension

Clipping of English diminished.

dim

1. (music, popular music notation) diminished chord

   A C^dim chord is composed of C–E^♭-G^♭.

• enPR: dĭm, IPA^(key): /dɪm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪm

From Middle English dim, dym, from Old English dim, dimm (“dim, dark, gloomy; wretched, grievous, sad, unhappy”), from Proto-West Germanic *dimm, from Proto-Germanic *dimmaz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰem- (“to whisk, smoke; obscure”). Compare Faroese dimmur (“dark”), Icelandic dimmur (“dark”) and dimma (“darkness”).

dim (comparative dimmer, superlative dimmest)

1. Not bright or colorful.

   Synonyms: dull, dingy; see also Thesaurus:dim

   The lighting was too dim for me to make out his facial features.

   • 1821, Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, […], Pisa, Italy: […] Didot; reprinted London: Noel Douglas […], 1927, →OCLC:

     that sustaining Love / Which, through the web of being blindly wove / By man and beast and earth and air and sea, / Burns bright or dim

2. (colloquial) Not smart or intelligent.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stupid

   He may be a bit dim, but he's not entirely stupid.

3. Indistinct, hazy or unclear.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:indistinct

   His vision grew dimmer as he aged.

4. Disapproving, unfavorable: rarely used outside the phrase take a dim view of.

   Synonyms: deprecative, improbatory, reprobative, reprobatory

dim (uncountable)

1. (archaic) Dimness.
   • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 278:

     All about me the Red Weed clambered among the ruins, writhing to get above me in the dim. Night, the Mother of Fear and Mystery, was coming upon me.

dim (third-person singular simple present dims, present participle dimming, simple past and past participle dimmed)

1. (transitive) To make something less bright.

   He dimmed the lights and put on soft music.

2. (intransitive) To become darker.

   The lights dimmed briefly when the air conditioning was turned on.

3. To render dim, obscure, or dark; to make less bright or distinct.
   • 1695, C[harles] A[lphonse] du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, […], London: […] J[ohn] Heptinstall for W. Rogers, […], →OCLC:

     a king among his courtiers, […] who out to dim the lustre of all his attendants

   • 1791, Homer, “[The Odyssey.] Book II.”, in W[illiam] Cowper, transl., The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume II, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 42, line 501:

     Now ſet the ſun, and twilight dimm'd the ways, […]

4. To deprive of distinct vision; to hinder from seeing clearly, either by dazzling or clouding the eyes; to darken the senses or understanding of.
   • c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iii:

     And with our Sun-bright armour as we march,
     Weel chaſe the Starrs from heauen, and dim their eies
     That ſtand and muſe at our admyred armes.

   • 1740, Christopher Pitt, The Aeneid:

     Her starry eyes were dimm'd with streaming tears.

6. (figurative) To diminish, dull, or curtail.

   All these setbacks had started to dim the hopes of the students.

   Nothing will dim their spirit of resilience.

   A glut might dim the outlook for grain futures.

• dim mak (etymologically unrelated)
• dim sum (etymologically unrelated)

dim (not comparable)

2. (music) Clipping of diminished.

• dim. (diminuendo)

• IMD, IDM, Mid., MID, mid, 'mid, mid-, DMI, MDI, IM'd

dim

1. (reintegrationist norm) third-person plural present indicative of dizer

• IPA^(key): [ˈdɪm]
• Hyphenation: dim

From Dutch duim.

dim (plural dim-dim)

1. thumb
2. inch

   Synonym: inci

From English dimmer.

dim (plural dim-dim)

1. high-beam headlamp on a road vehicle

• “dim”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *dymъ.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdim/
• Rhymes: -im
• Syllabification: dim

dim m inan

1. smoke

• Eùgeniusz Gòłąbk (2011), “dym”, in Słownik Polsko-Kaszubski / Słowôrz Pòlskò-Kaszëbsczi‎^[1]
• “dim”, in Internetowi Słowôrz Kaszëbsczégò Jãzëka [Internet Dictionary of the Kashubian Language], Fundacja Kaszuby, 2022

dim

1. third-person singular/plural present indicative of dimēt
2. (with the particle lai) third-person singular imperative of dimēt
3. (with the particle lai) third-person plural imperative of dimēt

From Old Norse dimmr. Related to English dim and Icelandic dimmur.

dim (neuter singular dimt, definite singular and plural dimme, comparative dimmere, indefinite superlative dimmest, definite superlative dimmeste)

1. dim
2. to have bad vision

   Han er dim på synet

   His vision is dim/bad/poor

• “dim” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From the Old Norse adjective dimmr, from Proto-Germanic *dimmaz. The neuter noun is derived from the adjective. The automotive senses may be a Back-formation from of the verb dimme.

dim (neuter singular dimt, definite singular and plural dimme, comparative dimmare, indefinite superlative dimmast, definite superlative dimmaste)

1. gloomy
2. dim
3. having bad vision

   Han er dim på synet

   His vision is dim/bad/poor

• dimma, dimme (verb)

dim m (definite singular dimmen, indefinite plural dimmar, definite plural dimmane)

1. (automotive, colloquial) a switching of one's headlamps from high-beam to low-beam
2. (automotive, colloquial) lever, button or other
3. (dialectal) clipping of dimme (“twilight, half darkness”)

dim n (definite singular dimmet, uncountable)

1. (dialectal) dimmest, darkest part of the summer night
2. (dialectal) twilight

   Synonym: skumring

dim m (definite singular dimmen, indefinite plural dimmar, definite plural dimmane)

1. (colloquial) clipping of dimensjon

• “dim” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• mid-

dim

1. alternative form of dimm

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *dymъ.

• IPA^(key): /dîm/

dȉm m inan (Cyrillic spelling ди̏м)

1. smoke

• dimni signal

• “dim”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *dymъ.

• IPA^(key): /dím/

dȉm m inan

1. smoke

The diacritics used in this section of the entry are non-tonal. If you are a native tonal speaker, please help by adding the tonal marks.

Masculine inan., hard o-stem
nominative	dìm
genitive	díma
	singular
nominative (imenovȃlnik)	dìm
genitive (rodȋlnik)	díma
dative (dajȃlnik)	dímu
accusative (tožȋlnik)	dìm
locative (mẹ̑stnik)	dímu
instrumental (orọ̑dnik)	dímom

• “dim”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU (in Slovene), 2014–2025

dim

1. romanization of 𒁴 (dim)

Borrowed from Dutch duim.

dim

1. inch

• Coolsma, S (1913), Soendaneesch-Hollandsch Woordenboek (in Dutch), Leiden: A.W. Sijthoff's Uitgeversmaatschappij

dim

1. face

From Middle Welsh dim, cognate with the rare Old Irish dim (“something, anything”) (which may be a Brythonic loanword), with further etymology uncertain. Matasović derives the word from Proto-Celtic *dis-smi-, dissimilated from Proto-Indo-European *dus-smi- (literally “bad one”).^[1] Alternatively, Morris-Jones hypothesizes the original meaning was “share, portion” and derives the word from Proto-Celtic *dīsman, from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂y- (“to share”).^[2]

Development of the particle sense (“not”) is an instance of Jespersen's Cycle.^[3]

• IPA^(key): /dɪm/
• Rhymes: -ɪm

dim

1. any
2. no, not, none

dim

1. (in negative phrases) nothing, anything

   Synonym: dim byd

2. none, nil, zero

• dim byd (“nothing”)
• dim ond (“only”)
• da i ddim (“good for nothing, useless”)
• dim o beth (“pipsqueak, knee-high to a grasshopper”)

• be', beth (“what”)
• pob dim, popeth (“everything”)
• rhywbeth (“something”)
• unrhyw beth (“anything”)

dim

1. not

As a verbal particle, almost always appears mutated as ddim.

• ni (“not”) (literary)

• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “dim”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies