gauge

Wikipedia

English

Alternative forms

• gage

Etymology

From Middle English gage, gaugen, from Old Northern French gauger (Modern French jauger), from gauge (“gauging rod”), of Germanic origin, from Old Low Frankish *galga (“measuring rod, pole”), from Proto-Germanic *galgô (“pole, stake, cross”), from Proto-Indo-European *g'hAlgh-, *g'hAlg- (“perch, long switch”). Cognate with Old High German galgo, Old Frisian galga, Old English ġealga (“cross-beam, gallows”), Old Norse galgi (“cross-beam, gallows”), Old Norse gelgja (“pole, perch”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: gāj, IPA: ɡeɪdʒ, SAMPA: geIdZ

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -eɪdʒ

Noun

gauge (plural gauges)

1. A measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard
   • 2007. Zerzan, John. Silence. p. 2.

     The record of philosophy vis-à-vis silence is generally dismal, as good a gauge as any to its overall failure.

2. An act of measuring.
3. Any instrument for ascertaining or regulating the level, state, dimensions or forms of things; as, a rain gauge; a steam gauge.
4. A thickness of sheet metal or wire designated by any of several numbering schemes.
5. The distance between the rails of a railway.
6. (mathematics, analysis) A semi-norm; a function that assigns a non-negative size to all vectors in a vector space.

Translations

A measure; a standard of measure; an instrument to determine dimensions, distance, or capacity; a standard

Finnish: mitta (fi) French: gabarit (fr) m. Portuguese: medida (pt) f. Spanish: calibración (es) f.

Swahili: geji (sw) Swedish: mått (sv)

Any instrument for ascertaining or regulating the level, state, dimensions or forms of things; as, a rain gauge; a steam gauge

Finnish: mittari (fi)

French: étalon (fr) m. Spanish: galga (es) f., calibre (es) m. Swahili: geji (sw)

The distance between the rails of a railway

Czech: rozchod (cs) m. Finnish: raideleveys (fi) French: écartement (fr) m.

Italian: scartamento (it) m. Portuguese: bitola (pt) f. Spanish: trocha (es) f. Swahili: geji (sw)

A semi-norm; a function that assigns a non-negative size to all vectors in a vector space

Finnish: puolinormi (fi) Icelandic: kvarði (is) m.

Swahili: geji (sw)

Derived terms

• broad gauge
• Coulomb gauge
• gauge boson
• gauge field
• gauge theory
• lattice gauge theory
• Lorentz gauge
• narrow gauge
• quantum gauge theory
• rail gauge
• standard gauge
• Weyl gauge

Verb

gauge (third-person singular simple present gauges, present participle gauging, simple past and past participle gauged)

1. (transitive) To measure or determine usually with a gauge; to measure the capacity, character, or ability of; to estimate; to judge of.

Translations

measure

Finnish: mitata (fi) French: mesurer (fr)

Scottish Gaelic: tomhais (gd)

References

• gauge in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913