ENGLISH
REFERENCE

nom

interj.
C2 Proficiency US //ˈnɑm// nom Informal

interj. a sound you make to show that food is delicious. It is often repeated to show you are eating something very tasty.

interj. an onomatopoeic representation of eating, used to express pleasure in the taste of food. Often reduplicated as 'nom nom' or 'nom nom nom'.


SIMPLE

This chocolate cake is so good, nom!

CONTEXTUAL

She posted a photo of her giant burger with the caption 'nom' to show how much she enjoyed it.

Etymology 1

Short form of various words.

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic, variant of num, num-num. Attested 2004 as om nom, om nom nom, popularized from 2007 in internet use, second place in the American Dialect Society’s "Word of the Year" 2010. From the catchphrase of Cookie Monster on Sesame Street, as at the end of “C Is For Cookie” (1971), made when devouring cookies. However, as late as 2009, this was canonically written with a ‘u’, as in S is for School! (2006), as “num num”, or in the press kit for the 40th season (2009), as “un num num num num”; by 2013 this was changed to the now-popular nom.

Usage

Commonly used in digital communication and social media; often repeated for emphasis.

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