gamut

[gam-uht]

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noun

the entire scale or range: the gamut of dramatic emotion from grief to joy.
Music.
1. the whole series of recognized musical notes.
2. the major scale.

Origin of gamut

1425–75; late Middle English < Medieval Latin; contraction of gamma ut, equivalent to gamma, used to represent the first or lowest tone (G) in the medieval scale + ut (later do); the notes of the scale (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si) being named from a Latin hymn to St. John the Baptist: Ut queant laxis resonare fibris. Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte Iohannes

Can be confusedgambit gamut gantlet gauntlet

Synonyms for gamut

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1. sweep, breadth, scope, reach, extent, field.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for gamut

spectrum, scale, area, series, sweep, field, catalogue, extent, compass, panorama, scope, diapason

Examples from the Web for gamut

Contemporary Examples of gamut

She ran the gamut with physical humor and dished out droll, self-deprecating one-liners.
Ann B. Davis Was the Zesty Antidote to the Bradys
Emily Shire
June 2, 2014
We take on the gamut of recent confessionals, from the sickeningly self-involved to the extremely endearing.
How Likable Is Alec Baldwin After His ‘New York Magazine’ Confessional?
Amy Zimmerman
February 26, 2014
It ran the gamut of ‘I want to thank you,’ ‘Because of you I turned a corner,’ to ‘How could you do this to me?’
Making It in the 2-1-2: How Kenneth Walsh Achieved His NY Dream
Tim Teeman
February 19, 2014
It ran the gamut from abstract, original eveningwear to a sort of sixties-inspired minimalism.
Tom Ford Nods to Jay Z at London Fashion Week
Liza Foreman
February 18, 2014
Speculation runs the gamut on whether or not Italy would actually request extradition.
Amanda Knox: I’ll Be A Fugitive If They Convict Me
Barbie Latza Nadeau
January 9, 2014

Historical Examples of gamut

Gamut cheerfully assented, and together they sought the females.
The Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper
He started to run the gamut of appeal, denial, and anger; but his hearers were inflexible.
The Plunderer
Roy Norton
His face ran the gamut from white to red, from red back again to white.
Little Novels of Italy
Maurice Henry Hewlett
Their expressions ran the gamut from sheepishness to blank haughtiness.
Adaptation
Dallas McCord Reynolds
Wild flowers, birds, and animals also run the gamut of the zones.
The Book of the National Parks
Robert Sterling Yard

British Dictionary definitions for gamut

gamut

noun

entire range or scale, as of emotions
music
1. a scale, esp (in medieval theory) one starting on the G on the bottom line of the bass staff
2. the whole range of notes
physics the range of chromaticities that can be obtained by mixing three colours

Word Origin for gamut

C15: from Medieval Latin, changed from gamma ut, from gamma, the lowest note of the hexachord as established by Guido d'Arezzo + ut (now, doh), the first of the notes of the scale ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, derived from a Latin hymn to St John: Ut queant laxis re sonare fibris, Mi ra gestorum fa muli tuorum, Sol ve polluti la bi reatum, S ancte I ohannes

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

Word Origin and History for gamut

1520s, originally, "lowest note in the medieval musical scale," in the system of notation devised by Guido d'Arezzo, contraction of Medieval Latin gamma ut, from gamma, the Greek letter, indicating a note below A, + ut, the low note on the six-note musical scale that took names from corresponding syllables in a Latin hymn for St. John the Baptist's Day:

Ut queant laxis resonare fibris
Mira gestorum famuli tuorum
Solve polluti labii reatum,

etc. Gamut came to be used for "the whole musical scale;" the figurative sense of "entire scale or range" of anything is first recorded 1620s. When the modern octave scale was set early 16c., si was added, changed to ti in Britain and U.S. to keep the syllables as different from each other as possible. Ut later was replaced by more sonorous do (n.). Cf. also solmisation.