Gate

How to spell gate

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce gate

What does gate mean?

1. nounA hinged or sliding barrier that closes an opening in a wall, fence, or hedge.

Gate in a sentence

• He latched the garden gate before the dog could escape.

• The farmer painted the rusty field gate a fresh green.

Where does gate come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Gate descends from the Old English word geat, which meant an opening, a gap, or a door, and which had close relatives across the Germanic languages, including the Old Norse gat meaning a hole or opening. The original idea was less about a swinging barrier and more about the gap itself, the way through a wall or fence, with the structure that closes the gap taking the name later. Over the medieval period the spelling settled with the silent final 'e' that lengthens the vowel, giving the modern long 'a' sound. The word stayed firmly part of the everyday vocabulary and even spread into place names and street names, where a northern English 'gate' can sometimes mean a road rather than a barrier. Its near twin in sound, 'gait' meaning a manner of walking, comes from a quite separate Old Norse root, which is why the two are easy to mix up despite their unrelated meanings.

How the word is built

• gate (whole word, from Old English geat: an opening or door)

Words that sound like gate

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• gait: A person's or animal's manner of walking or moving on foot.