gamut

noun

gam·​ut ˈga-mət 

1

: the whole series of recognized musical notes

2

: an entire range or series

ran the gamut from praise to contempt

Did you know?

With the song “Do-Re-Mi,” the 1965 musical film The Sound of Music (adapted from the 1958 stage musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein) introduced millions of non-musicians to solfège, the singing of the sol-fa syllables—do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti—to teach the tones of a musical scale. Centuries earlier, however, the do in “Do-Re-Mi” was known as ut. Indeed, the first note on the scale of Guido d’Arezzo, an 11th century musician and monk who had his own way of applying syllables to musical tones, was ut. d’Arezzo also called the first line of his bass staff gamma, which meant that gamma ut was the term for a note written on the first staff line. In time, gamma ut underwent a shortening to gamut, and later its meaning expanded first to cover all the notes of d’Arezzo’s scale, then to cover all the notes in the range of an instrument, and, eventually, to cover an entire range of any sort.

Synonyms

• diapason
• range
• scale
• spectrum
• spread
• stretch

Choose the Right Synonym for gamut

range, gamut, compass, sweep, scope, orbit mean the extent that lies within the powers of something (as to cover or control).

range is a general term indicating the extent of one's perception or the extent of powers, capacities, or possibilities.

the entire range of human experience

gamut suggests a graduated series running from one possible extreme to another.

a performance that ran the gamut of emotions

compass implies a sometimes limited extent of perception, knowledge, or activity.

your concerns lie beyond the narrow compass of this study

sweep suggests extent, often circular or arc-shaped, of motion or activity.

the book covers the entire sweep of criminal activity

scope is applicable to an area of activity, predetermined and limited, but somewhat flexible.

as time went on, the scope of the investigation widened

orbit suggests an often circumscribed range of activity or influence within which forces work toward accommodation.

within that restricted orbit they tried to effect social change

Examples of gamut in a Sentence

She experienced the full gamut of human emotions.

the actress's work runs the gamut from goofy comedies to serious historical dramas

Recent Examples on the Web

As for luggage, their picks spanned the gamut, from hard- and soft-sided, bargain priced to heirloom-level, but all the suggestions had one instinct in common: practicality. —Mark Ellwood, Robb Report, 7 Feb. 2025

From playing famous legal prosecutor Christopher Darden to being the prime suspect of a murder in Paradise, Sterling K. Brown has spanned the legal gamut of television. —Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 28 Jan. 2025

The performances will run the musical gamut and reflect a varied year in music, in which female narrators reined supreme, country ruled the charts and genre-bending was the name of the game. Need a break? —Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 25 Jan. 2025

Either way you're treated to refresh rates up to 120 Hz, 400 nits of brightness and 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut. —Paul Ridden, New Atlas, 14 Jan. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English gamut, gamma-ut "lowest note in the medieval hexachord system, the system itself," borrowed from Medieval Latin, from gamma gamma entry 1 (used as a symbol for the lowest note in the scale) + ut ut

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing gamut

• run the gamut

Rhymes for gamut

• dammit

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Kids Definition

gamut

noun

gam·​ut ˈgam-ət 

: an entire range or series

ran the gamut from rich to poor

Etymology

probably a contraction of gamma ut, a Latin expression in the Middle Ages for "the full range of notes in music," from gamma "the lowest note on the staff" and ut "the first note of the scale"