gram1

[gram] /græm/
noun
1.
a metric unit of mass or weight equal to 15.432 grains; one thousandth of a kilogram.
Abbreviation: g.
Also, especially British, gramme.
Origin
1790-1800; < French gramme < Late Latin gramma a small weight < Greek grámma something drawn, a small weight

gram2

[gram] /græm/
noun
1.
(in the East Indies) the chickpea used as a food for people and cattle.
2.
any of several other beans, as the mung bean, Vigna radiata (green gram or golden gram) or the urd, V. mungo (black gram)
Origin
1695-1705; < Portuguese grão < Latin grānum grain

Gram

[grahm] /grɑm/
noun
1.
(in the Volsunga Saga) the sword of Sigmund, broken by Odin, repaired by Regin, and used again by Sigurd in killing Fafnir.
Compare Balmung.
Origin
< Old Norse Gramr literally, angry, evil
Examples from the web for grams
  • The search turned up three grams of cocaine powder as well as drug paraphernalia, according to the newspaper.
  • They received only a miserable ration, two hundred grams of sausage per day.
  • No, the pronunciation is killer-grams and killer-pascals.
  • Either way, you have to be able to carry that energy with you, and a few grams of antimatter aren't going to do it.
  • Researchers injected the mice with two grams of ethanol per kilogram of body weight three times daily for seven days.
  • Generally the lethal dose is measured in grams per kilogram.
British Dictionary definitions for grams

gram1

/ɡræm/
noun
1.
a metric unit of mass equal to one thousandth of a kilogram. It is equivalent to 15.432 grains or 0.002 205 pounds g
Word Origin
C18: from French gramme, from Late Latin gramma, from Greek: small weight, from graphein to write

gram2

/ɡræm/
noun
1.
any of several leguminous plants, such as the beans Phaseolus mungo (black gram or urd) and P. aureus (green gram), whose seeds are used as food in India
2.
the seed of any of these plants
Word Origin
C18: from Portuguese gram (modern spelling grão), from Latin grānumgrain

gram3

/ɡrɑːm/
noun
1.
(in India) a village
Word Origin
Hindi
Word Origin and History for grams

gram

n.

metric unit of weight," 1797, from French gramme (18c.), from Late Latin gramma "small weight," from Greek gramma "small weight," originally "letter of the alphabet," from stem of graphein "to draw, write" (see -graphy). Adopted into English about two years before it was established in France as a unit in the metric system by law of 19 frimaire, year VIII (1799).

grams in Medicine

gram (grām)
n.
Abbr. g, gm., gr.
A metric unit of mass equal to 15.432 grains, one thousandth (10-3) of a kilogram, or 0.035 ounce.

Gram (grām, gräm), Hans Christian Joachim. 1853-1938.

Danish physician who developed (1884) Gram's stain as a method of distinguishing types of bacteria.

grams in Science
gram
  (grām)   
A unit of mass in the metric system, equal to 0.001 kilogram or 0.035 ounce. See Table at measurement.
Gram
  (gräm, grām)   
Danish bacteriologist who in 1884 developed a method of staining bacteria, called Gram's stain or Gram's dye, that is used to identify and classify bacteria, often from samples of infected body fluids. The classification, called gram-negative or gram-positive, can be useful in the initial selection of antibiotics to treat the infection.
grams in Culture

gram definition


The basic unit of measurement for mass in the metric system; one cubic centimeter of water has a mass of approximately one gram.