Gases

How to spell gases

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gases

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gases mean?

1. nounMore than one gas; airlike substances that expand freely to fill any container.

Gases in a sentence

• The factory was fined for releasing harmful gases into the air.

• Natural and bottled gases are both stored under pressure.

Where does gases come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The singular 'gas' is one of the few words with a known inventor: the Flemish chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont coined it in the early seventeenth century. He based it on the Greek word khaos, meaning 'empty space' or 'the formless void', because he was describing a substance with no fixed shape that fills whatever holds it. The Dutch pronunciation of the letter combination gave us the soft opening sound we still use. English adopted the word during the 1700s as chemistry developed, and it forms its plural in the regular way by adding -es after the final s. The spelling trap is real: the plural noun keeps a single s, 'gases', while only the verb forms (he gasses the engine) double it, which is why so many writers wrongly write 'gasses' for the plural.

How the word is built

• gas (noun)
• -es (plural suffix)

British and American spelling

Gases is the British spelling. American English spells it gasses.