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Technically, ham is a body part: even people have "hams."

It's used, though, mostly to refer to the two hind legs of a pig, particularly after they have been turned into a cured, processed meat.

It can also be used to refer to fresh, unprocessed pork from the hind legs that you can cook as you would any other cut of fresh pork. It's a large, "primal" cut. "Primal" is a word butchers use to mean that secondary cuts are usually made from it. It has 3 bones in it: aitch, leg and hind shank bones. If it's cut into 3 -- top, middle and bottom -- the top part is called the "rump portion", the middle is called "centre slice", and the bottom is called "shank portion." The very, very bottom part of shank portion (though not as far down as the foot) is called the "ham hock" and is often sold separately.

Fresh ham from younger pigs will be a greyish-pink colour; from older pigs it will be a light rose colour. Both will turn pale grey after cooking.

Fresh ham may be sold bone-in or boneless.

Cooking Tips
Treat as you would any regular joint of pork. Basically, when you roast it, you have "roast leg of pork."

Storage
Store fresh ham in refrigerator and use or freeze within 5 days (unless label indicates a best before date previous to that.)

Other entries for:

Ham
Air-Cured Ham, Ardennes Dry Ham, Bradenham Ham, Brine-Cured Ham, Butt End Ham, Country Ham, Devilled Ham, Fresh Ham, Gammon, Ground Ham, Guijuelo Ham, Ham Steak, Leoncini Roasted Ham, Limerick Ham, Los Pedroches Ham, Pannonia Ham, Spanish Ham, Suffolk Cure, Taylor Pork Roll, Wachholder Ham

Other entries for: Pork

Bacon, Barrow Hog, Berkshire Pigs, Butcher Hog, Casertano Pigs, Crown Roast, Fore Hock, Gilt Hog, Ground Pork, Hog Jowl, Iberian Pigs, Kurobuta Pork, Lard, Mortadella, Oreilles de Crisse, Pickled Pork, Pig's Feet, Pork Belly, Pork Brawn, Pork Chops, Pork Crackling, Pork Cubes, Pork Cuts Illustrated -- British, Pork Hocks, Pork Leg, Pork Loin, Pork Ribs, Pork Rinds, Pork Shoulder, Pork Souse, Pork, Prime Collar, Salt Meat, Sow, Spare Ribs, Stag Hog, Streak of Lean, Tasso, Ventrèche, Zampino

Other entries for:

Meat
Affettati, Beef, Buffalo, Cap On / Cap Off, Game, Goat, Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications, Minced Meat, Offal, Paillards, Potted Meats, Poultry, Roasts, Sausages, Sheep, Steak, Veal, Venison, Yak