"Imma" meaning in English

See Imma in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Contraction

IPA: /ˈaɪmə/ [US], [ˈaːmə] [US] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Imma.wav [US]
Rhymes: -aɪmə Etymology: Written form of a relaxed pronunciation of I'm gonna. Includes a reduction of /mn/ to /m/ (see reduction of /mb/ and /mn/ on Wikipedia). Common in and possibly originated in African-American Vernacular English, but is used more broadly today. According to m'Cheaux, it originated in Gullah, where "a-" replaces "-ing" and indicates immediate future tense. Head templates: {{en-head|contr}} Imma Forms: I'mma [alternative], imma [alternative], I'ma [alternative], i'ma [alternative], Ima [alternative], ima [alternative], Ima' [alternative], I'm a [alternative], I'm a' [alternative], i'm a' [alternative], I'm'a [alternative], i'm'a [alternative], I'm-a [alternative]
  1. (chiefly US, colloquial, African-American Vernacular) Contraction of I'm + gonna. Tags: US, abbreviation, alt-of, colloquial, contraction Alternative form of: I'm (extra: + gonna)

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Written form of a relaxed pronunciation of I'm gonna. Includes a reduction of /mn/ to /m/ (see reduction of /mb/ and /mn/ on Wikipedia). Common in and possibly originated in African-American Vernacular English, but is used more broadly today. According to m'Cheaux, it originated in Gullah, where \"a-\" replaces \"-ing\" and indicates immediate future tense.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "I'mma",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "imma",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "I'ma",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "i'ma",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Ima",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ima",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Ima'",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "I'm a",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "I'm a'",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "i'm a'",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "I'm'a",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "i'm'a",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "I'm-a",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "contr"
      },
      "expansion": "Imma",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "contraction",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "extra": "+ gonna",
          "word": "I'm"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "African-American Vernacular English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 4 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              3,
              7
            ]
          ],
          "text": "So Imma say 16 or 17, cool.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              38,
              42
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2009, Kanye West, MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West (actor):",
          "text": "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              57,
              62
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2017, Frankie Pamplemousse, “The No-Kart Race”, in The ZhuZhus:",
          "text": "I told you we should have gone with the mermaid costume. I'mma put this on -- 'cause I'm going to the race cause I feel better.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Contraction of I'm + gonna."
      ],
      "id": "en-Imma-en-contraction-LG0qpaUl",
      "links": [
        [
          "I'm",
          "I'm#English"
        ],
        [
          "gonna",
          "gonna#English"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "African-American Vernacular",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, colloquial, African-American Vernacular) Contraction of I'm + gonna."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "abbreviation",
        "alt-of",
        "colloquial",
        "contraction"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈaɪmə/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[ˈaːmə]",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-aɪmə"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Imma.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6a/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Imma.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Imma.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6a/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Imma.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Imma.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Imma"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Written form of a relaxed pronunciation of I'm gonna. Includes a reduction of /mn/ to /m/ (see reduction of /mb/ and /mn/ on Wikipedia). Common in and possibly originated in African-American Vernacular English, but is used more broadly today. According to m'Cheaux, it originated in Gullah, where \"a-\" replaces \"-ing\" and indicates immediate future tense.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "I'mma",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "imma",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "I'ma",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "i'ma",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Ima",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ima",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "Ima'",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "I'm a",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "I'm a'",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "i'm a'",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "I'm'a",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "i'm'a",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "I'm-a",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "contr"
      },
      "expansion": "Imma",
      "name": "en-head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "contraction",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "extra": "+ gonna",
          "word": "I'm"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "African-American Vernacular English",
        "American English",
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English contractions",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English non-lemma forms",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English triple contractions",
        "Pages with 4 entries",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "Rhymes:English/aɪmə",
        "Rhymes:English/aɪmə/2 syllables"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              3,
              7
            ]
          ],
          "text": "So Imma say 16 or 17, cool.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              38,
              42
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2009, Kanye West, MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West (actor):",
          "text": "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, Imma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              57,
              62
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2017, Frankie Pamplemousse, “The No-Kart Race”, in The ZhuZhus:",
          "text": "I told you we should have gone with the mermaid costume. I'mma put this on -- 'cause I'm going to the race cause I feel better.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Contraction of I'm + gonna."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "I'm",
          "I'm#English"
        ],
        [
          "gonna",
          "gonna#English"
        ]
      ],
      "qualifier": "African-American Vernacular",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly US, colloquial, African-American Vernacular) Contraction of I'm + gonna."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "abbreviation",
        "alt-of",
        "colloquial",
        "contraction"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈaɪmə/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "[ˈaːmə]",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-aɪmə"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Imma.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6a/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Imma.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Imma.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/6a/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Imma.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-Imma.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Imma"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (d6fca27 and 65e1673). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.