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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

simmer.

To cook or undergo heating slowly at or below the boiling point.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈsɪmə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsɪmɚ/Canada, General-American/ˈsɪmə/Australia
  1. To cook or undergo heating slowly at or below the boiling point.

    intransitive
    The soup simmered on the stove.
  2. To cause to cook or to cause to undergo heating slowly at or below the boiling point.

    transitive
    Simmer the soup for five minutes, then serve.
  3. To be on the point of breaking out into anger; to be agitated.

    figuratively · intransitive
  4. To remain angry with someone or something past the point of exhaustion; to resign oneself to holding a grudge, especially after some failed attempts to resolve a situation.

    figuratively · intransitive
    I tried to get through to him; all that's left for me to do is simmer.
  5. To develop gradually, of an idea or plan.

    figuratively · intransitive
Where this word comes from

From alteration of dialectal simper, from Middle English simperen (“to simmer”), of possibly imitative origin. First attested in the intransitive sense. The noun is from the verb. First attested in the late 15ᵗʰ century.

noun/ˈsɪmə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsɪmɚ/Canada, General-American/ˈsɪmə/Australia
  1. The state or process of simmering.

    The kettle was kept on the simmer.
Where this word comes from

From alteration of dialectal simper, from Middle English simperen (“to simmer”), of possibly imitative origin. First attested in the intransitive sense. The noun is from the verb. First attested in the late 15ᵗʰ century.

noun/ˈsɪmə/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsɪmɚ/Canada, General-American/ˈsɪmə/Australia
  1. Someone who plays a sim (a simulation game), particularly The Sims.

    informal
Where this word comes from

From sim (“simulation”, noun) + -er.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.