Bangs

How to spell bangs

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bangs

What does bangs mean?

1. nounSudden loud sharp sounds, such as those made by explosions or slamming objects.
2. nounA section of hair cut straight across the forehead, known in Britain as a fringe.
3. verbStrikes something forcefully so that it makes a loud noise (third person singular).

Bangs in a sentence

• noun

  The fireworks finished with three deafening bangs over the harbour.

• noun

  She asked the stylist to trim her bangs above the eyebrows.

• verb

  Whenever the wind rises, the loose shutter bangs against the wall.

• noun

  Loud bangs from the building site kept the neighbours awake all morning.

• noun

  His long bangs kept falling into his eyes during the exam.

• verb

  He always bangs the front door when he leaves in a hurry.

Where does bangs come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base word 'bang' arrived in English in the 1500s and is generally traced to Old Norse 'banga', meaning 'to hammer' or 'to strike', echoed by similar Scandinavian forms; it began life partly as an imitative word, copying the sharp percussive sound of a heavy blow. From the sense of striking came the sense of the loud noise such a blow produces, which is why a sudden explosion or a slammed door is described as a bang. The hair sense, used chiefly in North America for the fringe cut straight across the forehead, grew from the adverbial phrase 'bang off', meaning 'abruptly' or 'cut off square', so hair trimmed in a blunt, straight line was said to be cut bang off and then simply called bangs. Adding the plural and third-person '-s' gives the form here. The spelling is reassuringly phonetic, so the only thing to remember is that it ends in a plain '-s' with no silent letters.

How the word is built

• bang (to strike with a loud noise)
• -s (plural/third-person verb suffix)