gamut

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[edit] English

[edit] Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈgæm.ət/

[edit] Etymology

1520s, original sense “lowest note of musical scale”, from Medieval Latin gamma ut, from gamma ((Greek letter, corresponding to the musical note G)) + ut (first solfège syllable, now replaced by do). In modern terms, “G do” – the first note of the G scale[1] Meaning later extended to mean all the notes of a scale, and then more generally any complete range.

[edit] Noun

gamut (plural gamuts)

  1. A (normally) complete range.
    • 19??, Dorothy Parker, review of Katharine Hepburn in the Broadway play The Lake
      She delivered a striking performance that ran the gamut of emotions, from A to B.
    • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room Chapter 2
      The entire gamut of the view's changes should have been known to her; its winter aspect, spring, summer and autumn; how storms came up from the sea; how the moors shuddered and brightened as the clouds went over; she should have noted the red spot where the villas were building; and the criss-cross of lines where the allotments were cut...
  2. (music) All the notes in the musical scale.
  3. All the colours available to a device such as a monitor or printer.

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Related terms

[edit] Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

[edit] References

  1. ^gamut” in the Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001
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