er

alternative err

1. informalSaid when hesitating in speech.

   If he—er—disappears—well, it seems to me that we'd both benefit.

   2012, Linda Miller, Desire and Destiny

   3 more examples

   “Er...Feathered Omen, hoot not,” he continued uneasily, “Son of Tanit, hoot not!”

   1970, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 11

   As the years go by, speech reverts to childhood levels of disfluency, with more pauses, more errors, more repeated words, but even the peak years are not great: up to 8 percent of the average person’s word output consists of meaningless fillers and placeholders like um, uh and er.

   2007 August 24, William Grimes, “Uh, Lead My Rips: No More Bloopers”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2013

   Liquid Samurai: 'FORMLESS AND INFINITE ARE WE, THE LIQUID SAMURAI. I SERVE MY QUEEN, AS WE HAVE FOR COUNTLESS--' / Mona: 'HEY, I DON'T MEAN TO INTERRUPT, BUT YOU SEEM LIKE YOU'RE MADE OF POWERFUL STUFF. CAN I, ER, STUDY YOU?'

   2019 December 10, Yacht Club Games, "Story" (Mona), in Shovel Knight Showdown (version 4.1), Nintendo Switch

   Synonyms: ah, eh, erm, uh, um

present singular third person ers · participle present erring · participle past erred · past erred · alternative err

1. informalintransitivetransitiveTo utter the word er when hesitating in speech.

   um and er

   1 more example

   He ummed and erred his way through the presentation.

   Synonyms: ah, eh, um, hem and haw

plural ers · alternative err

1. An occurrence of the interjection "er".

   1 more example

   Although Shakespeare refers to “hums and ha’s,” sifting through etiquette manuals and public-speaking guides turns up scant evidence of a prohibition against ums, ers and uhs, which are profuse in the first recording of Thomas Edison’s voice, in 1888. Mr. Erard, rather ingeniously, traces the prohibition on um and other speech flaws to the advent of radio in the early 1920s.

   2007 August 24, William Grimes, “Uh, Lead My Rips: No More Bloopers”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2013

plural ers · alternative err

1. The name of the Cyrillic script letter Р / р.

plural Ers

1. countableuncountableA surname.

alternative E.R. · alternative E. R.

1. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of Elizabeth Regina (“Queen Elizabeth”).
2. UKabbreviationinitialismInitialism of Edward Rex (on coins, letterboxes, etc.) The royal cypher for Edward VII, king of Great Britain

   Synonyms: EVIIR

3. USabbreviationinitialismgovernmentInitialism of Eleanor Roosevelt.
4. USabbreviationhobbiesAbbreviation of Erie (“Erie, Pennsylvania, USA”).

plural ERs · alternative E.R. · alternative E. R.

1. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountableball gamesInitialism of earned run.
2. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablebiologyInitialism of endoplasmic reticulum.
3. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablecomputingInitialism of entity-relationship.
4. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablemedicineInitialism of emergency room.
5. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablebiochemistryInitialism of estrogen receptor.
6. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablenatural sciencesInitialism of Einstein-Rosen bridge.
7. abbreviationcountableinitialismuncountablegovernmentInitialism of enhanced radiation.