I am

See also: iam, IAM, i-am, -iam, and Iam

English

Etymology

Originally after Biblical usage (Exodus 3:14), translating Hebrew אֶהְיֶה ('ehyeh).

Proper noun

I am

1. God, seen as self-sufficient and self-existent.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 3:14:

     And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.

   • 1817, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literara, I.13:

     The primary imagination I hold to be the living Power and prime Agent of all human Perception, and as a repetition in the finite mind of the eternal act of creation in the infinite I AM.

2. (colloquial, frequently with great) A self-centred, arrogant person.
   • 2003, Alasdair Gray, “Miss Kincaid's Autumn”, in Every Short Story, Canongate, published 2012, page 751:

     Joe entered and said, ‘Dinner-time. The Great I Am upstairs has grudgingly assented to oxtail soup, bangers and mash, tinned peaches with ice cream.’

Interjection

I am something or someone

1. Indicates solidarity or a support of a shared conviction with the person or object upon which a perceived injustice is being inflicted.

   I am Charlie Hebdo!

Antonyms

• I am not

Related terms

• one for all, all for one

Translations

I'm — see I'm

Anagrams

• ima, I'ma, I'm'a, AIM, IMA, I'm a, mai, Ima, Mai, AMI, Ima', MAI, mia, I'm a', i'ma, i'm'a, MIA, aim, Mia, I'm-a