name Uncommon

Tatum

TAY-tuhm

Tatum (name) means a habitational surname from Old English. Example: “He had done so much to take his game to the next level, but it didn’t seem to matter. Jayson Tatum just couldn’t hit a shot.”

name

A habitational surname from Old English.

"He had done so much to take his game to the next level, but it didn’t seem to matter. Jayson Tatum just couldn’t hit a shot." — (2022)

A male given name transferred from the surname.

"By the time a letter from Marcy finally came, explaining that the entire time she had been living on the South Side in a Negro neighborhood near the university, and that she had a son whom she'd named Tatum Kubiac—"Tatum" after a famous jazz pianist—it seemed to make little difference." — (1988)

A female given name transferred from the surname.

"The youngest ever Oscar-winner is an actress called Tatum O'Neal, who was ten when she won Best Supporting Act for the film Paper Moon (1973)." — Jan Payne (2009)

A village in Cameroon.

A town in New Mexico.

A town in South Carolina.

A city in Panola County and Rusk County, Texas, named after settlers Albert and Mary Tatum.

noun

The shortest statistically significant time interval between successive notes in a rhythmic phrase or a musical piece.

"In general, the music meter contains a nested grouping of pulses called metrical levels, where pulses on higher levels are subsets of the lower level pulses; the most salient level is known as the beat, and the lowest level is termed the tatum." — Jarno Seppanen (2006)

"A tatum represents the lowest regular pulse train that a listener intuitively infers from the timing of perceived musical events (segments)." — Spotify (2023)

Word Forms

tatums plural

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He had done so much to take his game to the next level, but it didn’t seem to matter. Jayson _____ just couldn’t hit a shot.

Etymology

From Tatham, from Old English Tāta, a personal name of unknown meaning + hām.

Origin: Old English

Synonyms

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Tate Tay Tatem Tatumn

Related Words

tea Taylor tate tay

Rhymes for Tatum

ultimatum

See all rhymes for Tatum →

Frequently Asked Questions

What does “Tatum” mean?

The word “Tatum” means a habitational surname from Old English.

How do you pronounce “Tatum”?

“Tatum” is pronounced TAY-tuhm (/ˈteɪtəm/ in IPA).

How do you use “Tatum” in a sentence?

Here is “Tatum” used in a sentence: “He had done so much to take his game to the next level, but it didn’t seem to matter. Jayson Tatum just couldn’t hit a shot.”

What part of speech is “Tatum”?

Depending on how it is used, “Tatum” can be a name and a noun.

Where does the word “Tatum” come from?

The word “Tatum” comes from Old English. From Tatham, from Old English Tāta, a personal name of unknown meaning + hām.

Is “Tatum” a common word?

“Tatum” is an uncommon word in modern English.

How many meanings does “Tatum” have?

“Tatum” has 8 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a habitational surname from Old English.

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