Hindi

Proper noun

यम • ‎(yam) ?

1. (Hinduism) Yama, god of death

Sanskrit

Noun

यम • ‎(yama) m

1. a rein, curb, bridle.
2. a driver, charioteer.
3. the act of checking or curbing, suppression, restraint (with वाचाम्, restraint of words, silence).
4. self-control forbearance, any great moral rule or duty (as opp. to नियम, a minor observance ; in Yājñ. iii, 313 ten यमs are mentioned, sometimes only five).
5. (in योग) self-restraint (as the first of the eight अङ्गs or means of attaining mental concentration).
6. any rule or observance.

Noun

यम • ‎(yama) m, f

1. twin-born, twin, forming a pair.

Noun

यम • ‎(yama) m

1. a twin, one of a pair or couple, a fellow (du. ‘ the twins ’ N. of the अश्विन्s and of their twin children by माद्री, called नकुल and सह-देव ; यमौ मिथुनौ, twins of different sex).
2. a symbolical N. for the number ‘ two ’.
3. Name of the god who presides over the पितृs (q.v.) and rules the spirits of the dead. (he is regarded as the first of men and born from विवस्वत्, ‘ the Sun ’, and his wife सरण्यू ; while his brother, the seventh मनु, another form of the first man, is the son of विवस्वत् and संज्ञा, the image of सरण्यू ; his twin-sister is यमी, with whom he resists sexual alliance, but by whom he is mourned after his death, so that the gods, to make her forget her sorrow, create night ; in the वेद he is called a king or संगमनो जनानाम्, ‘ the gatherer of men ’, and rules over the departed fathers in heaven, the road to which is guarded by two broad-nosed, four-eyed, spotted dogs, the children of शरमा ; in Post-vedic mythology he is the appointed Judge and ‘ Restrainer ’ or ‘ Punisher ’ of the dead, in which capacity he is also called धर्मराज or धर्म and corresponds to the Greek Pluto and to Minos ; his abode is in some region of the lower world called यम-पुर ; thither a soul when it leaves the body, is said to repair, and there, after the recorder, चित्र-गुप्त, has read an account of its actions kept in a book called अग्र-संधाना, it receives a just sentence ; in MBh. यम is described as dressed in blood-red garments, with a glittering form, a crown on his head, glowing eyes and like वरुण, holding a noose, with which he binds the spirit after drawing it from the body, in size about the measure of a man's thumb ; he is otherwise represented as grim in aspect, green in colour, clothed in red, riding on a buffalo, and holding a club in one hind and noose in the other ; in the later mythology he is always represented as a terrible deity inflicting tortures, called यातना, on departed spirits ; he is also one of the 8 guardians of the world as regent of the South quarter ; he is the regent of the नक्षत्र अप-भरणी or भरणी, the supposed author of RV. x, 10 ; 14, of a hymn to विष्णु and of a law-book ; यमस्यार्कः N. of a सामन् ĀrshBr.)
4. Name of the planet Saturn (regarded as the son of विवस्वत् and छाया).
5. Name of one of स्कन्द's attendants (mentioned together with अति-यम).
6. a crow (compare -दूतक)
7. a bad horse (whose limbs are either too small or too large).

Noun

यम • ‎(yama) n

1. a pair, brace, couple.
2. (grammar) a twin-letter (the consonant interposed and generally understood, but not written in practice, between a nasal immediately preceded by one of the four other consonants in each class)
3. pitch of the voice, tone of utterance, key.

References

• Monier William's Sanskrit-English Dictionary, 2nd Ed. 1899