Mem is the thirteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its name is pronounced "mem" and its common phonetic value in Modern Hebrew is the voiced bilabial nasal /m/, usually transliterated as "m." The letter appears in two distinct graphic forms: a medial or isolated form (מ) used at the beginning and in the middle of words, and a final form (ם), known as "mem sofit," used at the end of words.

Forms, pronunciation and grammatical roles

Both forms represent the same sound and are treated as one letter for order and alphabetic purposes. As a written prefix, the letter מ־ (often vocalized as /mi-/ or /m-/ depending on context) functions as a preposition meaning "from" or "of" (compare the common word מן, min). Mem also appears in many Hebrew roots and derived patterns; for example, מלך (melekh) means "king," מים (mayim) means "water," and מן (min) means "from."

Historical origins and cognates

The letter descends from an ancient Semitic sign that likely represented water. Scholars trace its ancestry through Proto-Sinaitic and Phoenician forms (Mēm) to the square Hebrew character used today. The Phoenician letter also yielded the Greek letter mu (Μ) and the Latin M. In other Semitic alphabets, such as Arabic, the cognate letter is mīm (م), which shares both sound value and similar name.

Numerical value and symbolism

In the system of Hebrew numerals known as gematria, mem has the value 40. The letter has also acquired symbolic meanings in Jewish interpretive and mystical traditions: it is sometimes associated with water (in part because the Hebrew word for water, מים, begins with mem) and is used to illustrate concepts of hidden versus revealed states — an idea linked to the letter's closed final form versus its open medial form.

Notable facts and usage

  • Mem is the 13th letter in alphabetical order and is widely used as the basis for abbreviations, initialisms, and alphabetical sorting in Hebrew texts.
  • The final form ם is encoded separately in modern digital text standards, so typographic systems and fonts provide distinct glyphs for medial and final appearances.
  • Across languages derived from and influenced by Phoenician orthography, the mem sign has given rise to the familiar "M" letter shape used in Greek and Latin scripts.

Because the letter occurs frequently in everyday Hebrew words and grammatical particles, mem is a basic element of Hebrew literacy and a link in a long tradition of alphabetic development that connects Semitic scripts to alphabets used across the Mediterranean and beyond.