A dram is the traditional Scottish term for a small serving of whisky. In everyday whisky culture, it usually means an informal pour rather than one fixed volume.
The word comes from the drachma, an ancient unit of weight and later a small unit of liquid measurement. In Britain, a fluid dram has a defined volume, but whisky drinkers generally use dram more loosely. A dram may be a small pour served neat, with water, or sometimes over ice.
Because the term is informal, the amount can vary between bars, tasting rooms, and personal pours. Whisky festivals and distilleries may use measured samples, while home drinkers often use the word simply to mean “a glass of whisky.”
Dram should not be confused with a standard legal serving size. The term communicates tradition and quantity in a broad sense, but it does not guarantee a particular number of millilitres or a particular alcohol strength.