hum vs phonation

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. 

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 

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

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

phonation

noun
  • The process of producing vocal sound by the vibration of the vocal folds that is in turn modified by the resonance of the vocal tract. 

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