hmmm.

n.  a muttering during a religious sermon, as in the novel The Recognitions by William Gaddis; see also hmmmph.


n.  a sound made by someone making “a show of seeming to have forgotten” something, as in The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.


n.  the murmur of a “voice emanating from the floor,” in Legacy of the Drow by R.A. Salvatore; see also hmmmm.


n.  the sound of a sudden realization.

<He looked at the crystal ball, made the kind of ‘hmmm’ noise that means, “ah, so that’s where that went,” and he put it away again.  —Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere.>

hmmm hmmmm.

n.  the mumbling of a doctor in an examination room, as when looking over a patient with acne vulgaris in Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski.

hmmmm.

interj.  a noise meaning “Would you care to elaborate on that?” (Dann Gunn, Wool-Gathering or How I Ended Analysis).


n.  a “comforting,” “supportive,” “nonverbal” murmur of attentive listening (Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year).

<I’d say something that was a thinly veiled plea for some advice or a pep talk, and she’d just say, “Hmmmm,” like she knew I was going to be able to answer my own question in a moment.  It seemed such a spiritually enlightened position to take.  —Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year.>

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