Meaning

(informal) Said when hesitating in speech..

Definitions by Sense

1. (informal) Said when hesitating in speech.
2. (informal, transitive, intransitive) To utter the word er when hesitating in speech.
3. An occurrence of the interjection "er".
4. The name of the Cyrillic script letter Р / р.

Example Sentences

“Er...Feathered Omen, hoot not,” he continued uneasily, “Son of Tanit, hoot not!”

As the years go by, speech reverts to childhood levels of disfluency, with more pauses, more errors, more repeated words, but even the peak years are not great: up to 8 percent of the average person’s word output consists of meaningless fillers and placeholders like um, uh and er.

If he—er—disappears—well, it seems to me that we'd both benefit.

Liquid Samurai: 'FORMLESS AND INFINITE ARE WE, THE LIQUID SAMURAI. I SERVE MY QUEEN, AS WE HAVE FOR COUNTLESS--' / Mona: 'HEY, I DON'T MEAN TO INTERRUPT, BUT YOU SEEM LIKE YOU'RE MADE OF POWERFUL STUFF. CAN I, ER, STUDY YOU?'

um and er

He ummed and erred his way through the presentation.

Although Shakespeare refers to “hums and ha’s,” sifting through etiquette manuals and public-speaking guides turns up scant evidence of a prohibition against ums, ers and uhs, which are profuse in the first recording of Thomas Edison’s voice, in 1888. Mr. Erard, rather ingeniously, traces the prohibition on um and other speech flaws to the advent of radio in the early 1920s.

Word Forms

• ers
• erring
• erred

Synonyms for 49er

Related Words

When Should You Use 49er?

Use 49er when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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