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“Plum” or “Plumb”

plum / plumb are similar-sounding terms with different meanings (referred to as homophones). To better understand the differences, see below for definitions, pronunciation guides, and example sentences using each term.

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Definitions

What each term means

Same sound, different spellings and meanings, shown with a pronunciation guide for each term.

plum p·l·AH·m

  • nounany of several trees producing edible oval fruit having a smooth skin and a single hard stone.
  • nounany of numerous varieties of small to medium-sized round or oval fruit having a smooth skin and a single pit.
  • nouna highly desirable position or assignment.

plumb p·l·AH·m

  • verbmeasure the depth of something.
  • verbweight with lead.
  • verbexamine thoroughly and in great depth.
  • verbadjust with a plumb line so as to make vertical.
  • adjectiveexactly vertical.
  • adverbconforming to the direction of a plumb line.
  • adverbexactly.
Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“plum”

  • Umeboshi (梅干し): pickled plum
  • Siemens grew up in Plum Coulee, and went to school…
  • …violinist and singer, originally from Plum Coulee, Manitoba.
  • …fig, prune, date, gooseberry, peach, plum, currant and quince tarts.
  • Plum Stones
  • …performing an original composition about Plum Coulee.
  • …in the underground dungeon in Plum Manor (梅莊) in Hangzhou.
  • Wong Lung-wai as Plum Flower Bandit
  • …Siegfried's ball or the Sugar Plum Fairy.
  • …government animal testing facility, the Plum Island Animal Disease Center.

“plumb”

  • "Cut" by Plumb
  • …(2015–present, former touring member of Plumb and Seventh Day Slumber)
  • Category:Songs written by Plumb (singer)
  • Peter Plumb, Chief Executive (2009–16) of Moneysupermarket.com
  • …to create a completely vertical (plumb) succession of 'V' shapes.
  • …Alistair Paterson, Mark Pirie, Vivienne Plumb, Ralph Proops, Gemma Rowsell, Brian…
  • Preston B. Plumb (R)
  • …ſommer, plombe (for modern summer, plumb).
  • …episode" that is "unafraid to plumb the depths of human loss…

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license. Definitions are drawn from WordNet.

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