ohm

See also: Ohm

English

Etymology

Named after Bavarian physicist Georg Ohm. A German surname, first recorded in the 12th century, from German Ohm (“uncle”), from Proto-West Germanic *auhaim (“maternal uncle”), from or related to Proto-Germanic *awô (“grandfather, paternal uncle”) + *haimaz (“home”). Doublet of oom and of dialectal eam (“uncle”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊm/
• (US) IPA^(key): /oʊm/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊm

Noun

ohm (plural ohms)

2. In the International System of Units, the derived unit of electrical resistance; the electrical resistance of a device across which a potential difference of one volt causes a current of one ampere.

   Alternative form: Ω (symbol)

   • 1900, Journal of the Franklin Institute, volume 149, page 461:

     If the volt, ampere and ohm were taken as the absolute units, the practical units would be the ampere, begohm and begavolt, names just as convenient as ampere, coulomb and farad.

   • 1992, Chilton's General Motors, page 7:

     As the test light voltage touches terminal "C7", the module should switch, causing the ohmmeter to "overrange" if the meter is in the 1000-2000 ohms position.

Derived terms

• abohm
• giga-ohm
• kilo-ohm
• mega-ohm
• megohm
• micro-ohm
• milli-ohm
• nano-ohm
• ohmage
• ohm-ammeter
• ohmic
• pico-ohm
• subohm
• tera-ohm

Translations

the derived unit of electrical resistance

• Arabic: أُوم m (ʔōm)
• Armenian: օհմ (ōhm)
• Belarusian: ом m (om)
• Bulgarian: ом m (om)
• Catalan: ohm (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 歐姆 / 欧姆 (zh) (ōumǔ)

• Czech: ohm (cs) m
• Dutch: ohm (nl) m or n
• Esperanto: omo
• Finnish: ohmi (fi)
• French: ohm (fr) m
• Georgian: ომი (omi)
• German: Ohm (de) n
• Greek: ωμ (el) n (om)
• Hebrew: אוהם (he) m (ohm), אוֹם (he) m (om)
• Icelandic: óm
• Indonesian: ohm (id)
• Interlingua: ohm
• Irish: óm m
• Italian: ohm (it)
• Japanese: オーム (ja) (ōmu)
• Khmer: អូម (km) (ʼoum)
• Korean: 옴 (om)
• Latvian: oms
• Macedonian: ом m (om)
• Malay: ohm
• Māori: wae parehiko
• Polish: om (pl) m, ohm (pl) m
• Portuguese: ohm (pt) m
• Russian: ом (ru) m (om)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ом m

  Latin: om (sh) m

• Spanish: ohmio (es) m
• Swedish: ohm (sv) c
• Tagalog: omyo, om (tl)
• Thai: โอห์ม (th) (oom)
• Turkish: om (tr)
• Ukrainian: ом (uk) m (om)

Anagrams

• moh, HOM, Hom, hom., HMO, MHO, MOH, Moh., mho

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈoɦm̩]

Noun

ohm m inan

1. ohm (unit of electrical resistance)

Declension

Declension of ohm (hard masculine inanimate)

	singular	plural
nominative	ohm	ohmy
genitive	ohmu	ohmů
dative	ohmu	ohmům
accusative	ohm	ohmy
vocative	ohme	ohmy
locative	ohmu	ohmech
instrumental	ohmem	ohmy

Further reading

• “ohm”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “ohm”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

ohm m (plural ohms, diminutive ohmpje n)

1. ohm

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /om/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Homophone: heaume (but aspirated h)

Noun

ohm m (plural ohms)

1. ohm

Further reading

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

Galician

Noun

ohm m (plural ohns)

1. ohm

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Named after Bavarian physicist Georg Ohm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /uːm/
• Homophones: om, óm

Noun

ohm m (definite singular ohmen, indefinite plural ohm, definite plural ohmane)

1. ohm

References

• “ohm” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Anagrams

• hom

Polish

Alternative forms

• om

Etymology

Named after the German physicist Georg Ohm.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɔm/
• Rhymes: -ɔm
• Syllabification: ohm

Noun

ohm m inan

1. (uncommon) ohm

Declension

Declension of ohm

	singular	plural
nominative	ohm	ohmy
genitive	ohma	ohmów
dative	ohmowi	ohmom
accusative	ohm	ohmy
instrumental	ohmem	ohmami
locative	ohmie	ohmach
vocative	ohmie	ohmy

Further reading

• “ohm”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[1] (in Polish)

Portuguese

Etymology

Named after Bavarian physicist Georg Ohm. See German Ohm.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈõ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈõ/

• Hyphenation: ohm

Noun

ohm m (plural ohms)

1. ohm (the derived unit of electrical resistance)

Further reading

• “ohm”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “ohm”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French ohm.

Noun

ohm m (plural ohmi)

1. ohm

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	ohm	ohmul	ohmi	ohmii
genitive-dative	ohm	ohmului	ohmi	ohmilor
vocative	ohmule		ohmilor

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈom/ [ˈõm]
• Rhymes: -om
• Syllabification: ohm

Noun

ohm m (plural ohms)

1. alternative form of ohmio

Further reading

• “ohm”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), 24th edition, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 30 October 2026

Swedish

Etymology

From Georg Simon Ohm (1789–1854), attested since 1882.

Noun

ohm c

1. ohm, Ω
   • 1883, Gustaf Robert Dahlander, “Uppmätning af potentialskilnaden mellan två punkter”, in Elektriciteten och dess förnämsta tekniska tillämpningar‎^[2], archived from the original on 8 October 2025, page 57:

     Däremot har det för svagare strömmar afsedda instrumentet 100 ohms motstånd, […]

     On the other hand, the instrument for weaker currents has a resistance of 100 ohms, […]

Derived terms

• 150-ohmare (“punsch-roll”)
• attoohm
• centiohm
• deciohm
• dekaohm
• exaohm
• femtoohm
• gigaohm
• hektoohm
• kiloohm
• megaohm
• mikroohm
• milliohm
• nanoohm
• ohmmeter
• ohmmeter (“ohmmeter”)
• petaohm
• pikoohm
• teraohm
• yoktoohm
• yottaohm
• zeptoohm
• zettaohm

See also

• impedans (“impedance”)
• Ohms lag (“Ohm's law”)
• reaktans (“reactance”)
• resistans (“resistance”)

References

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