dem

From English Dem.

dem

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

• Wiktionary’s coverage of Dem terms

• IPA^(key): /dɛm/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛm

dem

1. Nonstandard form of them.
   • 2007 February 25, Sia Michel, “Stephen Marley in Tallahassee, M.I.A. in India and Klaxons on Fire”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     Go tell dem natty dreadlocks no wear handcuff,” advises Damian Marley, his guest star and younger brother, who accuses the officers of jealousy.

dem

1. Nonstandard form of them, in the sense of "those".

   What are dem fings doing ’ere?

2. (Caribbean, Jamaica, MLE, slang) (clitic, suffix) A group of.
   • 1956, “Give Her Love”, performed by Chin’s Calypso Sextet:

     Love tenderness is what the woman dem want

   • 2009, Dizzee Rascal, Chillin' Wiv Da Man Dem:

     Chillin' wiv da man dem
     Jammin' wiv da man dem
     It's all good in the hood wiv da man dem

   • 2010, Plan B, Stay Too Long:

     I’ve got my peeps dem with me shouting pull up your socks,
     Cos we just broke the law and now we're running from cops.

• gyal dem

• D. Me., DME, EDM, Edm, MEd, Med, Med., med

From Proto-Albanian *dama, from Proto-Indo-European *dm̥h₂ós (“bull”) (compare Irish damh, Ancient Greek δάμαλος (dámalos, “calf”)), from *demh₂- (“to tame”) (compare Latin domō, English tame).^[1]

• Audio:

  (file)

dem m (plural dema, definite demi, definite plural demat)

1. bull
2. main load-bearing beam in a floor

• ter

• “dem”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe [Dictionary of the Albanian language] (in Albanian), 2006
• FGJSSH: Fjalor i gjuhës së sotme shqipe [Dictionary of the modern Albanian language]‎^[3], 1980
• Newmark, Leonard (1999), “dem”, in Oxford Albanian-English Dictionary‎^[4], Oxford: Oxford University Press

From English them.

dem

1. they (plural)
2. them (plural)
3. theirs (plural possessive)

dem

1. (postpositive) placed after a noun phrase to mark it as plural; -s

   fumi daag dem ― my dogs

• Jerene Joseph, Antigua and Barbuda Dictionary (2019)
• Joy Lawrence, The Way Wed Talk and Other Antiguan Folkways (2003)

dem

1. inflection of dar:
   1. first-person plural present indicative/subjunctive
   2. first-person plural imperative

From clipping of English demonstrate.

dem

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese, colloquial) to demonstrate; to show; to perform

From clipping of English Democrat.

dem

1. (Internet slang, US Politics) The Democratic Party in the United States.
2. (Internet slang, US Politics) A member or supporter of the Democratic Party in the United States.

• IPA^(key): /dɛm/, [ˈd̥ɛm], [d̥ɛm], [d̥m̩], [pm̩]

dem (nominative de, possessive deres)

1. them (3rd person plural, objective case)

dem

1. (reintegrationist norm) inflection of dar:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative

• IPA^(key): /deːm/ (stressed) (for the pronoun)
• IPA^(key): /dem/, /dəm/, /dm̩/ (unstressed) (for the article)

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

dem

1. dative masculine/neuter singular of der: the

dem (relative)

1. dative masculine/neuter singular of der: to whom, to which

• dementsprechend
• demgegenüber
• demzufolge

• “dem” in Duden online
• “dem”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[5] (in German)

From English them.

• IPA^(key): /dɪm/

dem

1. (post-positional) plural marker

dem

1. (third-person plural object-oblique) them
2. (demonstrative) those

• Virginia Mixson Geraty, Gulluh fuh oonuh: Gullah for You (1997)
• Lorenzo Dow Turner, Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect (1969)
•  Seminole Indian Scouts Cemetery Association. Afro-Seminole Creole Wikitongues Language Class 
•  David B. Frank. Gullah Grammar Sketch

• IPA^(key): /dʲɛmˠ/

dem (triggers lenition)

1. (Munster) contraction of de +‎ mo, literally “from my”

   Chrochas dem ghualainn é.

   I suspended it from my shoulder.

Derived from English them.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛm/
• Homophone: -dem

dem

1. they (plural)
2. them (plural)
3. theirs (plural possessive)

• fi dem

dem

1. (postpositive) placed after a noun phrase to mark it as plural; -s

   mi fren dem ― my friends

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈdẽː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈdɛm]

dem

1. first-person singular present active subjunctive of dō

• IPA^(key): /dem/, [dəm]

dem m

1. unstressed form of deem

From English them.

dem

1. them, they
   • 2025 April 23, Orla Guerin, “More dan 150 pipo injure as earthquakes shake buildings for Turkey Istanbul”, in BBC News Pidgin‎^[6], archived from the original on 13 August 2025:

     For now, no immediate reports of casualties or wider damage, but Istanbul officials say dem dey check buildings, den warn pipo to stay clear of potentially-damaged sites.

     For now, there are no immediate reports of casualties or wider damage, but Istanbul officials say they are checking buildings, then warning people to stay clear of potentially damaged sites.

• “dem” in Naija Guru, 2026.

Compare Persian دم (dam, “breathe, moment”).

dem f

1. time

• IPA^(key): /dɛm/

dem

1. them

Compare German dem.

• IPA^(key): /dɛm/

dem (definite)

1. dative masculine/neuter singular of der: the

From English them.

dem

1. them

• Speak Norfolk Today: an Encyclopaedia of the Norfolk Island Language, by Alice Buffett, 1999.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔmː/, (Finland Swedish) /ˈdɛmː/
• (Standard Swedish) Homophone: de
• Rhymes: -ɔmː, -ɛmː

dem (third-person plural)

1. them; accusative/dative of de

   De ser dem

   They see them

2. misspelling of de

In most dialects, de (“they”) and dem (“them”) are no longer distinguished in speech. They are regularly mixed up in writing by native speakers, due to lack of grammatical intuition. The article de is often mixed up with dem as well.

• dom

dem

1. misspelling of de

• med, med.

Cognate with Old Turkic [script needed] (tam-), from Proto-Turkic *tem- (“to drip”).

dem

1. dew

From Ottoman Turkish دم (dem), from Persian دم (dam).

dem (obsolete, poetic)

1. breath
2. moment
4. (Bektashism, obsolete) wine, raki

• (breath): soluk
• (moment): an

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish دم, from Arabic دَم (dam).^[1]

dem

1. (obsolete, poetic) blood

• kan

• Audio:

  (file)

dem

1. to go

Omar Ka (2018), Nanu Dégg Wolof, National African Language Resource Center, →ISBN, page 100

Related to Northern Kurdish dem.

dem

1. time

From Chinese 添 (MC them).

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /teːm˨˦/
• Tone numbers: dem¹
• Hyphenation: dem

dem (Sawndip form 𣷹, 1957–1982 spelling dem)

1. to add

dem (1957–1982 spelling dem)

1. still; yet