Hmm

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Why do we say Hmm while thinking?

Hmm — or sometimes hm orhmmm — ranks among the words we English speakers say the most, and yet we give it scant thought. It's never defined for us as children, is left out of all but the fattest dictionaries and seems barely a word at all. (It doesn't even have a vowel.) Nonetheless, we all manage to grasp hmm's vast range of connotations.

Spoken with a rising intonation: "I didn't understand — say again?"

Prolonged, with ample m's: "I'm thinking deeply about what you said."/.../