different between aim vs dream

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e?m/
• Rhymes: -e?m

Etymology 1

From Middle English amen, aimen, eimen (“to guess at, to estimate, to aim”), borrowed from Old French esmer, aesmer, asmer, from Latin ad- plus aestimare (“to estimate”), the compound perhaps being originally formed in Medieval Latin (adaestimare), perhaps in Old French.

Noun

aim (plural aims)

1. The pointing of a weapon, as a gun, a dart, or an arrow, or object, in the line of direction with the object intended to be struck; the line of fire; the direction of anything, such as a spear, a blow, a discourse, a remark, towards a particular point or object, with a view to strike or affect it.

2. The point intended to be hit, or object intended to be attained or affected.
3. Intention or goal

   Synonyms: purpose, design, scheme

   • 1891, Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism

     There is no doubt at all that this is the future of machinery, and just as trees grow while the country gentleman is asleep, so while Humanity will be amusing itself, or enjoying cultivated leisure which, and not labour, is the aim of man - or making beautiful things, or reading beautiful things, or simply contemplating the world with admiration and delight, machinery will be doing all the necessary and unpleasant work.
4. The ability of someone to aim straight; one's faculty for being able to hit a physical target

5. (obsolete) Conjecture; guess.

Synonyms

• (intention): aspiration, design, end, ettle, intention, mint, object, purpose, scheme, scope, tendency; See also Thesaurus:goal or Thesaurus:intention

Derived terms

• aimless
• take aim

Translations

Verb

aim (third-person singular simple present aims, present participle aiming, simple past and past participle aimed)

1. (intransitive) To point or direct a missile, or a weapon which propels as missile, towards an object or spot with the intent of hitting it

2. (intransitive) To direct the intention or purpose; to attempt the accomplishment of a purpose; to try to gain; to endeavor;—followed by at, or by an infinitive
3. (transitive) To direct or point (e.g. a weapon), at a particular object; to direct, as a missile, an act, or a proceeding, at, to, or against an object

4. (transitive) To direct (something verbal) towards a certain person, thing, or group

5. (intransitive, obsolete) To guess or conjecture.

Usage notes

• Sense 2. This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Derived terms

• aim at
• ready, aim, fire!

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

aim

1. Initialism of America Online. AIM; AOL Instant Messenger.

Further reading

• aim in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• aim in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• AMI, I am, I'm a, I'm a', I'm'a, I'm-a, I'ma, IAM, Ima, Ima', MAI, MIA, Mai, Mia, i'm'a, i'ma, ima, mai, mia

Estonian

Etymology

Of Finnic origin. Cognate to Finnish aimottaa.

Noun

aim (genitive aimu, partitive aimu)

1. sense, idea of something, feeling

   Pole aimugi.

   I have no idea.

Declension

English

Alternative forms

• dreame (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English dreme, from Old English dr?am (“music, joy”), from Proto-West Germanic *draum, from Proto-Germanic *draumaz, from earlier *draugmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *d?rowg?-mos, from *d?rewg?- (“to deceive, injure, damage”).

The sense of "dream", though not attested in Old English, may still have been present (compare Old Saxon dr?m (“bustle, revelry, jubilation", also "dream”)), and was undoubtedly reinforced later in Middle English by Old Norse draumr (“dream”), from same Proto-Germanic root.

Cognate with Scots dreme (“dream”), North Frisian drom (“dream”), West Frisian dream (“dream”), Low German Droom, Dutch droom (“dream”), German Traum (“dream”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål drøm, Norwegian Nynorsk draum, Swedish dröm (“dream”), Icelandic draumur (“dream”). Related also to Old English dr?ag (“spectre, apparition”), Dutch bedrog (“deception, deceit”), German Trug (“deception, illusion”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: dr?m, IPA^(key): /d?i?m/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /d?im/, [d???????i?m], /d??im/
• Rhymes: -i?m

Noun

dream (plural dreams)

1. Imaginary events seen in the mind while sleeping.

   Synonym: (archaic) sweven

   Hyponym: nightmare

   • Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes.

   • She wakened in sharp panic, bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact, drowsily realising that since she had fallen asleep it had come on to rain smartly out of a shrouded sky.
2. (figuratively) A hope or wish.

   • So this was my future home, I thought! […] Backed by towering hills, the but faintly discernible purple line of the French boundary off to the southwest, a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
3. A visionary scheme; a wild conceit; an idle fancy.

   Synonym: vision

   • c. 1735, Alexander Pope, John Donne's Satires Versified

     There sober thought pursued the amusing theme,
     Till Fancy coloured it and formed a dream.

   • 1870, John Shairp, Culture and Religion

     It is not, then, a mere dream, but a very real aim which they propose.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

dream (third-person singular simple present dreams, present participle dreaming, simple past and past participle dreamed or dreamt)

1. (intransitive) To see imaginary events in one's mind while sleeping.
2. (intransitive) To hope, to wish.
3. (intransitive) To daydream.

4. (transitive) To envision as an imaginary experience (usually when asleep).

   • And still they dream that they shall still succeed.

   • At length in sleep their bodies they compose,
     And dreamt the future fight, and early rose.

5. (intransitive) To consider the possibility (of).
   • 1599-1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I scene 5, lines 167-8

     There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
     Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Usage notes

• "Dreamt" is less common than "dreamed" in both US and UK English in current usage, though somewhat more prevalent in the UK than in the US.

Derived terms

• bedream
• dream up
• dream on

Translations

Adjective

dream (not comparable)

1. Ideal; perfect.
   • 2014, P.G. Wodehouse, Jeeves and the Yule-Tide Spirit and Other Stories, Random House (?ISBN), page 158:

     If a girl who talked like that was not his dream girl, he didn't know a dream girl when he heard one.

References

Further reading

• dream in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• dream in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• -derma, Mader, ad rem, armed, dearm, derma, derma-, m'dear, medar, ramed, redam

Irish

Etymology

From Middle Irish dremm (“crowd, throng”), from Proto-Celtic *dregsmo, itself probably related to *drungos (“throng, host”).

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /d???aum?/, /d???oum?/ (as if spelled dram)
• (Connacht) IPA^(key): /d?????m?/, /d???am?/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /d???am?/

Noun

dream m (genitive singular dreama, nominative plural dreamanna)

1. crowd, group of people, party (group of people traveling or attending an event together, or participating in the same activity)
   • 1929, Tomás Ó Criomhthain, An tOileánach, chapter 4 “Scolaidheacht agus Fánaidheacht”, p. 48:

     Thug sé scilling do’n té ab’ fhearr is gach rang agus ar shíneadh na scillinge ’nár rang-ne ní h-aenne de’n dream mór do fuair í ach me féin.

     He gave a shilling to the best one in each class, and when he was giving out shillings in our class, there wasn't one in that big group who got one but me myself.

Declension

Mutation

References

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019) , “drem(m)”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• “dream” in Foclóir Gae?ilge agus Béarla, Irish Texts Society, 1st ed., 1904, by Patrick S. Dinneen, page 260.
• "dream" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

Middle English

Noun

dream

1. (Early Middle English) Alternative form of drem

Old English

Alternative forms

• dr?m, dr?m, *dr?em

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *draum, from Proto-Germanic *draumaz, whence also Old Frisian dr?m, Old Saxon dr?m (“joy, music, dream”), Old High German troum, Old Norse draumr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dræ???m/

Noun

dr?am m

1. music
2. joy
3. frenzy, ecstasy

Declension

Descendants

• Middle English: drem, dreme, dreem, dreeme
  • English: dream
  • Scots: dreme

West Frisian

Etymology

From Old Frisian dr?m, from Proto-West Germanic *draum, from Proto-Germanic *draumaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dr???m/

Noun

dream c (plural dreamen, diminutive dreamke)

1. dream, vision in one's sleep
   • 2008, Greet Andringa, Libben reach, Friese Pers Boekerij, page 70.

2. daydream
3. desire, what one wishes
4. delusion

Further reading

• “dream”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011