JAMS Synonyms: 148 Similar and Opposite Words

jams 1 of 2

noun

Definition of jams

plural of jam

as in snarls

a crowded mass (as of cars) that impedes or blocks movement thousands of cars trying to leave the stadium's parking lot at the same time are sure to create a jam

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Relevance

as in pickles

a difficult, puzzling, or embarrassing situation from which there is no easy escape the heavy rain puts us in a real jam: all of the preparations are for a garden wedding

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jams

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of jam

as in stuffs

to fit (people or things) into a tight space jammed his clothes into the already bulging hamper

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as in blocks

to prevent passage through by filling with something firefighters found the nightclub's doorways jammed with trapped patrons

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in loads

to put into (something) as much as can be held or contained the inn will jam a guest's picnic basket with an array of tempting foods

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in pushes

to force one's way several more people jammed into the bus even though there was hardly room to stand

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of jams

Noun

Food is simple but high quality, with a range of delicious jams, fresh pastries, yogurts, and granola. — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 5 Nov. 2026 There have been persistent paper jams at one location, and another location is having a power issue that has raised concerns about data corruption. — Kathryn Watson, CBS News, 3 Nov. 2026 Either is better than the humiliating nicknames—pj’s, jammies, or jam-jams. — Dodie Kazanjian, Vogue, 3 Nov. 2026 The Country Kitchen will be stocked full of baked goods, jams, jellies and cheese balls. — Tracy Trobridge, Baltimore Sun, 1 Nov. 2026 Pop the whole fruit into your mouth for a burst of tart flavor or use kumquats in preserves and jams. — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 30 Oct. 2026 The 154-minute live concert film spans hits, deep cuts and extended jams. — Jem Aswad, Variety, 29 Oct. 2026 Where Bikini Kill’s raw, aggressive, discordant tunes subvert gender expectations imposed on women, Uppity’s sincere and introspective jams refute the self-defeating emotional sterility that patriarchy demands from men. — Literary Hub, 26 Oct. 2026 Drink Cider at an Apple Orchard Venture 20 minutes south of Galena to Orchard Landing Apple Farm to pick 14 kinds of apples apples, sample hard cider, and grab some jams, jellies, and cider donuts to go. — Julia Sayers Gokhale, Midwest Living, 14 Oct. 2026

Verb

Responding to these calls also jams up staff and vehicles, increasing emergency response times for the rest of the city. — Jennah Pendleton, Sacbee.com, 23 Sep. 2026 Bugs Bunny jams himself against the edge and grits his teeth in agony. — Laura Preston, New Yorker, 30 Aug. 2026 Keanu Reeves jams out with his band, Dogstar, at their concert at Carlswerk Victoria in Cologne, Germany on July 2. — Brendan Le Updated, PEOPLE, 3 July 2026 That crud jams up the works of your coffee maker, slows brewing down, and impacts the taste of your morning brew. — Melissa Locker, Southern Living, 16 Feb. 2026 The move effectively jams the upper chamber by including the repeal in the funding package without the necessary time to reverse course, giving the Senate no option but to approve it. — Kaia Hubbard, CBS News, 22 Jan. 2026 Traffic regularly jams the freeway into the city, and residents fight over efforts to build more homes. — Bloomberg, Mercury News, 15 Oct. 2025 Someone breaks in, someone jams the signal from the home’s alarm system, someone monitors police radio traffic. — Bebe Hodges, Cincinnati Enquirer, 24 Aug. 2025 After Dex takes her down, Weyland recovers her brain and jams it into a supercomputer. — Fran Ruiz, Space.com, 4 Aug. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for jams

Noun

To get to Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, take the metro (look for the brown Metro Line 9) to avoid getting entangled in traffic snarls.

— Alan Chazaro, Condé Nast Traveler, 26 Oct. 2026
Around her, Youth builds an impressively frantic web of relationships and plot snarls.

— Kathryn VanArendonk, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2026

Definition of snarls

Verb

According to the team at the Francis Crick Institute, adult fruit flies have a hydrophobic lipid coating made of long hydrocarbon molecules that blocks water loss.

— Maria Mocerino, Interesting Engineering, 7 Nov. 2026
The idea is that, although their paralysis blocks the neural signals from reaching their muscles, those signals are still generated in the brain.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 6 Nov. 2026

Definition of blocks

Verb

The live feed loads much faster in the Birdbuddy app thanks to a new instant wake-up feature.

— Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, The Verge, 22 Oct. 2026
These improvements are intended to help military forces transport larger loads more efficiently and support operational demands across a range of environments.

— Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 11 Oct. 2026

Definition of loads

Verb

With the street protests contained, that pushes the economic issue—the protesters want more spending and fewer cuts, which the bond market is unlikely to tolerate—into next April’s elections.

— Jim Edwards, Fortune, 4 Nov. 2026
When a developer pushes code, Pando stores the incoming Git packfile in cloud object storage.

— Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 3 Nov. 2026

Definition of pushes

Noun

Standard lithium cells face persistent raw-material bottlenecks and thermal safety concerns.

— Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 2 Nov. 2026
The five-star analyst said that the conference supported his thesis that Nvidia continues to effectively navigate bottlenecks in the supply chain, land/power/shell, and funding.

— TipRanks.com Staff, CNBC, 1 Nov. 2026

Definition of bottlenecks

Noun

The same storm would leave them in very different predicaments, with very different paths to recovery.

— Dylan Connor, The Conversation, 2 Nov. 2026
The relentless rain associated with Hurricane Isaias didn’t stop some hikers from venturing onto trails and greenways in North Carolina, leading to life-threatening predicaments, officials say.

— Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, 15 Oct. 2026