imam

• imaum, iman (both archaic)

Borrowed from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈiːmɑːm/, /ɪˈmɑːm/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑːm

imam (plural imams)

2. (Islam) One who leads the salat prayers in a mosque.
   • 1901, John Payne, Alaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp:

     Now it chanced that in one of the mosques was an Imam. (footnote: The person specially appointed to lead the prayers of the congregation and paid out of the endowed revenues of the mosque to which he is attached)

   • 2001 May 10, London Review of Books:

     But then there's a Christian cleric and an imam on each of the country's three regional censorship boards, in Kaduna, Lagos and Onitsha, although more than one producer told me that the brown envelope worked the same magic here as in any other Nigerian Government department.

   • 2004 October 7, London Review of Books, page 3:

     In the 1980s, roughly six hundred young Algerian men, many of them protégés of Muslim Brothers from Egypt and Wahhabi imams from Saudi Arabia, went to Afghanistan to join the anti-Soviet jihad.

   • 2007 April 10, Howard Blum, “Who Killed Ashraf Marwan?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], archived from the original on 26 April 2023, retrieved 18 September 2015:

     Sheik Mohammad Seyed Tantawi, Egypt’s highest-ranking imam, led the prayers over the coffin, covered with an Egyptian flag.

   • 2021 January 13, Bethan McKernan, “Turkey drought: Istanbul could run out of water in 45 days”, in The Guardian‎^[2], archived from the original on 27 August 2025:

     The critically low level of rainfall in the second half of 2020 – approaching 50% year on year for November – led the religious affairs directorate to instruct imams and their congregations to pray for rain last month.

3. (usually capitalized) A Shi'ite Muslim leader descended from the prophet Muhammad and functioning as his spiritual successor.

   Hypernym: cleric

   1. (Twelver Shi'ism) One of the Twelve imams, descendants of Muhammad from the seventh to ninth centuries CE who lived exemplary lives.

• I'mma, Imma, Mami, imma, maim, mami

From Ottoman Turkish امام (imam), from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

• IPA^(key): /iˈmam/

imam m (plural imamë, definite imami, definite plural imamët)

1. (Islam) imam

Borrowed from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

• Audio:

  (file)

imam (definite accusative imamı, plural imamlar)

1. (Islam) imam

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [iˈmam]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

imam m (plural imams)

1. (Islam) imam

• “imam”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

imam c (singular definite imamen, plural indefinite imamer)

1. (Islam) imam

• “imam” in Den Danske Ordbog

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

• Audio:

  (file)

imam m (plural imams, diminutive imampje n)

1. (Islam) imam

• imâm

Borrowed from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

• IPA^(key): /i.mam/

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

imam m or f by sense (plural imams)

1. imam

• “imam”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Inherited from Malay امام (imam), from Arabic إمام (ʔimām, “leader, imam”).

• IPA^(key): /i.mam/
• Hyphenation: i‧mam

imam (plural imam-imam)

1. (Islam) imam
2. (Catholicism) priest

   Synonyms: padri, pastor, rama

3. (rare) leader

   Synonyms: kepala, pemimpin, penghulu

• “imam”, 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

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

• IPA^(key): /iˈmam/
• Rhymes: -am
• Hyphenation: i‧màm

imam m (invariable)

1. (Islam) imam

   Synonyms: iman, imano

• Imma, mima

īmam

1. accusative feminine singular of īmus

• IPA^(key): /ˈi.mam/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -imam
• Syllabification: i‧mam

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

imam m pers

1. (Islam) imam (“a Shi'ite Muslim leader”)

• mufti

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

imam

1. first-person singular present of imać

• “imam”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[3] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “imam”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[4] (in Polish)

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish امام (“imam”), from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

• IPA^(key): /i.ˈmam/
• Rhymes: -am
• Hyphenation: i‧mam

imam m (plural imami)

1. (Islam) imam

Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish امام (imam), from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

ìmām m anim (Cyrillic spelling ѝма̄м)

1. (Islam) imam

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

imam (Cyrillic spelling имам)

1. first-person singular present of imati (I have)

imam

1. first-person singular present of imeti

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

• IPA^(key): /iˈmam/ [iˈmãm]
  • Rhymes: -am
  • Syllabification: i‧mam
• IPA^(key): /iˈman/ [iˈmãn]
  • Rhymes: -an

imam m (plural imames)

1. (Islam) imam

• “imam”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

imam class IX (plural imam class X)

1. alternative form of imamu

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”).

imam c

1. (Islam) imam

• “imam”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “imam”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “imam”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

• imma, mima

• iman

Borrowed from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām, “leader”), possibly through English or Philippine languages spoken mostly by Muslims.

• (Standard Tagalog)
  • IPA^(key): /ʔiˈmam/ [ʔɪˈmam] (prescriptive from Arabic)
    • Rhymes: -am
  • IPA^(key): /ˈʔimam/ [ˈʔiː.mɐm]
    • Rhymes: -imam
• Syllabification: i‧mam

imám or imam (Baybayin spelling ᜁᜋᜋ᜔) (Islam, theology)

1. imam

• “imam”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, 2018

• mami

From Ottoman Turkish امام (imam), from Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

imam (definite accusative imamı, plural imamlar)

1. (Islam) imam

From Arabic إِمَام (ʔimām).

• IPA^(key): [iˈmɑm]
• Hyphenation: i‧mam

imam m

1. (Islam) imam
2. (literary) leader