Gulf

How to spell gulf

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce gulf

What does gulf mean?

1. nounA large area of sea partly enclosed by land, deeper and wider than a bay.
2. nounA large difference or separation between people, groups, or ideas.

Gulf in a sentence

• The cargo ship crossed the gulf on its way to the refinery.

• A widening gulf separated the two negotiating teams.

• Oil platforms dot the gulf a few miles offshore.

• There is a real gulf between what the report promised and what it delivered.

Where does gulf come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word traces back to the Greek kolpos, which literally meant 'bosom' or 'lap' and, by extension, the curved hollow of a bay where the sea folds into the land. This passed into Late Latin as colphus or colpus, then into Italian as golfo and Old French as golfe, both naming a large inlet of the sea. English borrowed it in the late 1300s, keeping the geographic meaning of a deep arm of ocean reaching into a coastline. From that physical image of a wide watery gap grew the familiar figurative sense of a vast separation between people, ideas, or generations. The single short vowel sound spelled with 'u' is the only real trap, since the word looks and behaves much like 'golf' yet means something entirely different.

How the word is built

• gulf (single root from Greek kolpos: bosom, bay, fold)