Gong

How to spell gong

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce gong

What does gong mean?

1. nounA large round metal disc that produces a deep resonant note when struck with a padded mallet.
2. nounBritish informal term for a medal, decoration, or official honour.

Gong in a sentence

• The hotel staff struck a brass gong to announce that dinner was served.

• After thirty years of service he finally collected his gong at the palace.

• A single gong sounded to open the meditation session.

• The veterans wore every gong they had earned during the war.

Where does gong come from?

Language of origin: Other

This word came into English in the early seventeenth century from Malay, where 'gong' (also 'agong') named the broad, suspended bronze disc struck with a mallet in the music of Java and the wider Malay world. The Malay term is widely held to be onomatopoeic, formed in imitation of the deep, ringing tone the instrument produces when hit, which is why the spelling is so short and direct. English traders and travellers in Southeast Asia adopted the object and its name together, and it spread quickly because the sound was so distinctive. Over time the word also picked up an informal British sense meaning a medal or military honour, probably a jokey nod to the round, metallic shape of a decoration. The plain four-letter spelling rarely troubles writers, since there is nothing silent or doubled to misjudge.

How the word is built

• gong (a single root word, imitative of the resonant sound the disc makes when struck)