gamy
1 Americanadjective
combining form
Usage
What does -gamy mean? The combining form -gamy is used like a suffix with a variety of meanings. In terms from botany, it typically means "fertilization, pollination.“ In other contexts, -gamy is used to mean "marriage" or "union."The form -gamy is also used to form nouns related to terms ending in -gamous. It is often used in scientific terms, especially in biology. The form -gamy comes from Greek -gamía, meaning “act of marrying.”What are variants of -gamy?While -gamy doesn't have any variants, it is related to the form -gamous, as in cleistogamous. Additional combining forms of the same general origin include gamet-, gameto-, and gamo-. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use articles for the forms.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of gamy1
First recorded in 1835–45; game 1 + -y 1
Origin of -gamy2
Combining form representing Greek -gamía “act of marrying”
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.
See Examples For:
Lamb is pretty gamy, but I love the specific flavor lamb brings to any dish.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 15, 2022
An intriguing pinot, with intense flavors of cherries, tree bark and a gamy meat on a grill tantalizingly out of sight, all wrapped in silky elegance.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 22, 2021
The gamy crime comedy “High on the Hog” rips off two kinds of “grindhouse” — the actual low-budget exploitation pictures of yore, and Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s stylishly ironic 2007 homage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2019
Three hours later, there was a rank, stubborn, gamy taste in my mouth, and no amount of beer-rinsing or tooth-brushing would get rid of it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2018
The air is dense with the chattering of shoemakers and the gamy scents of leather and tannin and dye.
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
![]()
Pho is a Vietnamese noodle soup, usually made with beef or chicken — but turkey adds a rich, gamier spin on the comforting classic.
From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2021
This blend works best on darker, gamier meat like turkey, duck, and goose.
From Salon ● Nov. 2, 2021
Here they have morphed into something glitzier and gamier.
From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2018
Chicago has a less metronomic, but even gamier tradition.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
The quail egg Runt had brought was smaller, its speckled shell flecked with dried grass, and it smelled gamier than the ones his humans ate.
From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker
![]()
R. 26—This proved so far the gamiest round in the fight, give and take being the order of the day, but Marr finally proved himself high cock-a-lorum, and won the round.
From Slate ● Jun. 2, 2019
As a crusading managing editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, he nosed out some of the gamiest scandals Chicago has spawned.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Up to five months ago, when he became the central figure in the gamiest Washington scandal in years, Baker was secretary to the Senate's Democratic majority.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Seldom over 2 ft. in length, the bonefish ranks among the world's gamiest.
From Time Magazine Archive
![]()
Business—just plain everyday business—is the gamiest, chanciest, most thrilling line there is to-day, and I'm for it.
From Roast Beef, Medium by Ferber, Edna
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.