Teem and team are not just homophones, they are also etymological kin. Teem comes from Old English tīman or tǣman, which originally meant "to bring forth offspring" or "to give birth to.” That word is related to the ancestor of team, the Old English noun tēam, meaning "offspring, lineage, or group of draft animals." Team can still be used to refer to a brood of young animals, especially pigs or ducks, but both teem and team have otherwise largely left their offspring-related senses behind.
Did you know?
What is the difference between the verbs teem and team?
If you want to describe an overflowing abundance of something, the word you are looking for is teem. We often see reference to "the teeming masses," "streets teeming with activity," or "forests teeming with life." You want the word team if you are trying to describe pairing two or more things in a coordinated ensemble ("she teamed the oxen together"), or forming some kind of partnership or association ("we are teaming with another organization this year").
General admission tickets get you really good access, including to the club enclosures and manufacturer display areas, which teem with historic and contemporary cars. James Tate, Car and Driver, 9 July 2022 However, once the ice begins to crack and the summer heat sets in, the Hudson Bay begins to teem with life as the beluga whales migrate to it. Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 18 July 2022 On Earth, the oceans teem with life, but is the same scenario possible on these frosty moons? Ashley Strickland, CNN, 14 July 2022 Individual servers can teem with tens, hundreds or thousands of people, making round-the-clock moderation a nauseatingly tall order. Nathan Grayson, Washington Post, 16 June 2022 The streets, which used to teem with tourists and neighborhood folks, were empty, with a stillness that felt like being underwater. Susan Orlean, The New Yorker, 18 May 2022 The deep waters here teem with out-of-this-world wildlife and coral formations.Travel + Leisure, 12 May 2022 And television disinformation is only a small part of the problem; social media networks teem with falsehoods about the election and boost Trump's lies in what is almost a fact-free zone. Stephen Collinson, CNN, 16 Dec. 2021 The task is especially hard in the Northern Virginia suburbs around Washington, DC, which teem with federal workers and highly educated and affluent voters. Stephen Collinson, CNN, 11 Oct. 2021
Verb
General admission tickets get you really good access, including to the club enclosures and manufacturer display areas, which teem with historic and contemporary cars. James Tate, Car and Driver, 9 July 2022 Individual servers can teem with tens, hundreds or thousands of people, making round-the-clock moderation a nauseatingly tall order. Nathan Grayson, Washington Post, 16 June 2022 However, once the ice begins to crack and the summer heat sets in, the Hudson Bay begins to teem with life as the beluga whales migrate to it. Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 18 July 2022 On Earth, the oceans teem with life, but is the same scenario possible on these frosty moons? Ashley Strickland, CNN, 14 July 2022 The streets, which used to teem with tourists and neighborhood folks, were empty, with a stillness that felt like being underwater. Susan Orlean, The New Yorker, 18 May 2022 The deep waters here teem with out-of-this-world wildlife and coral formations.Travel + Leisure, 12 May 2022 And television disinformation is only a small part of the problem; social media networks teem with falsehoods about the election and boost Trump's lies in what is almost a fact-free zone. Stephen Collinson, CNN, 16 Dec. 2021 The task is especially hard in the Northern Virginia suburbs around Washington, DC, which teem with federal workers and highly educated and affluent voters. Stephen Collinson, CNN, 11 Oct. 2021 See More
Word History
Etymology
Verb (1)
Middle English temen, from Old English tīman, tǣman; akin to Old English tēam offspring — more at team entry 1
Verb (2)
Middle English temen, from Old Norse tœma; akin to Old English tōm empty
First Known Use
Verb (1)
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense