Gamble

How to spell gamble

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gamble

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gamble mean?

1. verbTo play games of chance for money, or to take a risky action in the hope of a desired result.
2. nounA risky undertaking or bet whose outcome is uncertain.

Gamble in a sentence

• verb

  He refused to gamble his savings on a single stock.

• noun

  Buying the old house was a gamble that finally paid off.

• verb

  Investors who gamble on unproven companies can lose everything.

• noun

  Taking the new job in another city felt like a real gamble.

Where does gamble come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grew out of the older English verb 'game', which meant to play, sport, or amuse oneself, ultimately from Old English 'gamen' meaning amusement or fun. By the early 1700s a slangy form 'gamble' had appeared, carrying the narrower sense of playing games of chance for money, and the spelling settled with the frequentative ending '-le' that English uses for repeated, habitual actions. The 'b' is intrusive but stable, much as it appears in 'humble' and 'tumble'. Its great spelling trap is the near-twin 'gambol', meaning to skip or frolic, which sounds identical but ends in '-ol' and comes by a different route through French and Italian from the Latin 'gamba' meaning leg. Keeping the betting word as 'gamble' and the leaping word as 'gambol' is the whole challenge, and the link to 'game' helps fix the '-le' ending in memory.

How the word is built

• gamb- (from earlier 'game' / to play)
• -le (frequentative verb suffix)