I am

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 964384981, 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’, Canongate 2012 (Every Short Story), p. 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!

   I am Spartacus!

Antonyms

• I am not

Related terms

• one for all, all for one

Translations

I'm — see I'm

Anagrams

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