cry vs hum

cry

noun
  • A typical sound made by the species in question. 

  • A desperate or urgent request. 

  • Words shouted or screamed. 

  • A shout or scream. 

  • A group of hounds. 

  • A clamour or outcry. 

  • A shedding of tears; the act of crying. 

verb
  • To utter inarticulate sounds, as animals do. 

  • To shed tears; to weep. 

  • To shout, scream, yell. 

  • To cause to do something, or bring to some state, by crying or weeping. 

  • To utter loudly; to call out; to declare publicly. 

  • To make oral and public proclamation of; to notify or advertise by outcry, especially things lost or found, goods to be sold, auctioned, etc. 

  • Hence, to publish the banns of, as for marriage. 

hum

noun
  • An often indistinct sound resembling human humming. 

  • Unpleasant odour. 

  • A phenomenon, or collection of phenomena, involving widespread reports of a persistent and invasive low-frequency humming, rumbling, or droning noise not audible to all people. 

  • Busy activity, like the buzz of a beehive. 

  • A hummed tune, i.e. created orally with lips closed. 

intj
  • Synonym of um: a noise indicating doubt, uncertainty, &c. 

  • Synonym of hmm: a noise indicating thought, consideration, &c. 

verb
  • To produce low sounds which blend continuously 

  • To express by humming. 

  • To reek, smell bad. 

  • To make a sound from the vocal chords without pronouncing any real words, with one's lips closed. 

  • To drone like certain insects naturally do in motion, or sounding similarly 

  • To buzz, be busily active like a beehive 

How often have the words cry and hum occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )