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Teem and team are not just homophones, they are also etymological kin. Teem comes from Old English tīman or tǣman, which originally meant "to bring forth offspring" or "to give birth to.” That word is related to the ancestor of team, the Old English noun tēam, meaning "offspring, lineage, or group of draft animals." Team can still be used to refer to a brood of young animals, especially pigs or ducks, but both teem and team have otherwise largely left their offspring-related senses behind.
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What is the difference between the verbs teem and team?
If you want to describe an overflowing abundance of something, the word you are looking for is teem. We often see reference to "the teeming masses," "streets teeming with activity," or "forests teeming with life." You want the word team if you are trying to describe pairing two or more things in a coordinated ensemble ("she teamed the oxen together"), or forming some kind of partnership or association ("we are teaming with another organization this year").
Examples of teem in a Sentence
Simon Johnson, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2025
Four screens to one side of the room offer a window to the world outside: the interior of the hall, two views of red-carpet arrivals, and drone surveillance of the teeming crowds behind gates on the sidewalk outside.
—Nathan Heller, Vogue, 14 Oct. 2025
The movie, which runs two hours and forty-one minutes, is stuffed with fast-moving, complicated action and intricate dialogue, and the editing intercuts quickly among its teeming array of places, events, and characters.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2025
These technologies are revolutionizing humanity’s ability to catalog Earth’s species, which are estimated to number 8 million—though perhaps far, far more—by illuminating the teeming life that so often eludes human observation.
—Marion Renault, The Atlantic, 29 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for teem
Cite this Entry
“Teem.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/teem. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
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