Gama

American

[gam-uh, gah-muh] / ˈgæm ə, ˈgɑ mə /

noun

Vasco da c1460–1524, Portuguese navigator: discovered the sea route from Portugal around the continent of Africa to India.

Gama British

/ ˈɡɑːmə /

noun

Vasco da (ˈvæskəʊ də). ?1469–1524, Portuguese navigator, who discovered the sea route from Portugal to India around the Cape of Good Hope (1498)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

None of us ever met Christopher Columbus or Ferdinand Magellan or Vasco da Gama, the great explorers of history, but for more than 50 years astronauts have walked among us.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026

Bournemouth have signed striker Rayan from Vasco da Gama for an initial £24.7m on a five-and-a-half year deal which also includes £5.6m in potential add-ons.

From BBC • Jan. 27, 2026

For Pec, the Galaxy’s spectacular 23-year-old winger, the change started last February, when he left Brazilian club Vasco da Gama, the only team he had ever known.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 19, 2024

“We are sitting on a time bomb,” Vasco da Gama vice president Felipe Carregal Sztajnbok said in March.

From Seattle Times • May 7, 2024

Before the British took Malabar, before the Dutch Ascendency, before Vasco da Gama arrived, before the Zamorin’s conquest of Calicut.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023