hum vs speaking

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 

speaking

noun
  • The act of communicating vocally. 

  • One's ability to communicate vocally in a given language. 

  • An oral recitation of e.g. a story. 

adj
  • Used in speaking. 

  • Having competence in a language. 

  • Having the ability of speech. 

  • Expressive; eloquent. 

  • Involving speaking. 

intj
  • Indication that the person requested is the same as the one who is currently speaking. 

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