hmm.

interj.  an expression of surprise.

<“Hmm,” I said, raising an eyebrow.  “You have no debt?”  —David Bach, The Automatic Millionaire: A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich.>

n.  a sound which a “great conversationalist” makes while listening to keep people talking, as discussed in Think Like Your Customer: A Winning Strategy to Maximize Sales by Understanding and Influencing How and Why Your Customers Buy by Bill Stinnett; see also mmmmm, hmmmm.


n.  an empathetic response, as in Gilead: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson.


n.  an expression of thoughtful absorption, doubt.

<So people in England have cloned a full-grown mammal for the first time, a sheep named Dolly.  Hmm.  Can you say ‘Boys from Brazil?’  —Mike Kuniavsky.>

hmm hmm hmm.

n.  a soft murmur to oneself.

<[H]e was in such a helplessly apathetic condition that he would have said “Hmm, hmm, hmm,” and nodded to anything.  —Patrick Suskind, Perfume.>

n.  a whimpering agreement.

<[H]e was in such a helplessly apathetic condition that he would have said “Hmm, hmm, hmm,” and nodded to anything.  —Patrick Suskind, Perfume.>

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