ram / ram/ • n. 1. an uncastrated male sheep. ∎  (the Ram) the zodiacal sign or constellation Aries.2. short for battering ram. ∎  the falling weight of a pile-driving machine. ∎  hist. a beak or other projecting part of the bow of a warship, for piercing the hulls of other ships. ∎  hist. a warship with such a bow.3. a hydraulic water-raising or lifting machine. ∎  the piston of a hydraulic press. ∎  the plunger of a force pump.• v. (rammed, ram·ming) [tr.] roughly force (something) into place: he rammed his stick into the ground. ∎  (of a vehicle or vessel) be driven violently into (something, typically another vehicle or vessel) in an attempt to stop or damage it: their boat was rammed by a Japanese warship. ∎  [intr.] crash violently against something: the stolen car rammed into the front of the house. ∎  [tr.] [often as adj.] (rammed) beat (earth or the ground) with a heavy implement to make it hard and firm: portions of the Great Wall of China are made of rammed earth. ∎  (ram through) [tr.] force (something) to be accepted: Sunday's referendum to ram through a new constitution.PHRASES: ram something down someone's throat see throat.ram something home see home.DERIVATIVES: ram·mer n.

RAM Acronym for random-access memory.
1. The main memory of a computer. It is fabricated using semiconductor technology and allows the computer user to access (read from) or alter (write to) individual storage locations within the device (see def. 2).

2. A semiconductor memory device in which the basic element consists of a single cell that is capable of storing one bit of information. Large-capacity memories are formed as two-dimensional arrays of these cells. An individual cell is identified uniquely by row and column addresses, which are derived by decoding a user-supplied address word. A typical organization is shown in the diagram. Each cell in a RAM is thus independent of all other cells in the array and can be accessed in any order and in the same amount of time, hence the term random access; data can be both read from and written to the cells in the array. RAM is usually volatile memory and is used for temporary storage of data or programs.

RAM devices can be classified as static or dynamic. Static RAM (SRAM) is fabricated from either bipolar or MOS components (see bipolar transistor, MOSFET); each cell is formed by an electronic latch whose contents remain fixed until written to or until the power is removed. Dynamic RAM (DRAM) cells, which comprise MOS devices, utilize the charge stored on a capacitance as a temporary store (see bucket); due to leakage currents, the cell contents must be refreshed at regular intervals. The design of RAM chips is evolving and new standards arise frequently. The trend is for RAM to be sold in modules rather than individual chips. See DIMM.

ram.
1. Ram's head or skull on a Classical frieze: a variation on the more usual aegicrane or bucranium.

2. Criosphinx.

3. Reinforced prow or beak (rostrum) of an Antique warship for ramming and holing an enemy ship, featured on the columna rostrata.

4. To beat down earth, clay, etc., with a heavy implement, to make it hard and firm. See rammed.

RAM (random access memory) Integrated circuits (IC) (chips) that act as a temporary store for computer program and data (information). To run a program on a computer, the program is first transferred from a magnetic disk, or other storage device, to RAM. RAM also holds documents produced when the program is used. Another part of RAM stores the images to be displayed on the screen. The contents of RAM are lost when the computer is switched off.

RAM / ram/ • abbr. ∎  Comput. random-access memory. ∎  (in the UK) Royal Academy of Music.