What does "gay" mean?
A homosexual, especially a male homosexual.
Gay
/ɡeɪ/ adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang
adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A homosexual, especially a male homosexual.
- Grammar: gay is listed as adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: merry, abandoned, ac-dc, active.
- Useful contrasts: hetero, sad, drab.
- Usage evidence: My parents would repudiate my brother if they ever found out he was gay.
How to use "gay"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "gay" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "gay" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "gay" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "gay" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "gay" is acting as adj, adv, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "merry" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "gay", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A homosexual, especially a male homosexual. in-plural
"[headline] N.Y. Gays: Will the Spark Die?"
- 2 The letter —, which stands for the sound /ɡ/, in Pitman shorthand.
- 3 someone who is sexually attracted to persons of the same sex wordnet
- 4 Gayness: the quality of being gay. derogatory, informal, ironic, often
"Anti-gay persecution holds that you can pray the gay out of a person, or scare it out of them, or cajole it out of them."
- 5 Something which is bright or colorful, such as a picture or a flower. dialectal, obsolete
"At a stall soon Mary bote / A hume-book full ov gays."
Show 1 more definition
- 6 An ornament, a knick-knack. obsolete
"Look upon precepts in emblems, as they do to upon gays and pictures."
Verb
- 1 To make happy or cheerful. dated, transitive, uncommon
"SAYING GOOD-BYE (song) WE are always saying / "Good-bye, good-bye! / In work, in playing, / In gloom, in gaying […]"
- 2 To cause (something, e.g. AIDS) to be associated with homosexual people. transitive, uncommon
Adjective
- 1 Homosexual:; Possessing sexual and/or romantic attraction towards people one perceives to be the same sex or gender as oneself.
"Cliff is gay, but his twin brother is straight."
- 2 Homosexual:; Describing a homosexual man.
"gay and lesbian people"
- 3 Homosexual:; Tending to partner or mate with other individuals of the same sex. broadly
"In fact, as several letter writers to the New York Times pointed out in their response to the article, the disjuncture between these two popularized penguins shows how radically separated from each other are communities of gay people and communities of right-wing religious conservatives: if the Christian fundamentalists had looked up "gay penguins" or even "penguins" on the Internet, they would have encountered several gay penguin sites, including the story of Roy and Silo, the Central Park Zoo gay penguin couple about whom a children's book was written; the saga of the gay penguin community at a German zoo; and the campaign of Gay Penguin for President (whose slogan was "George W. Bush talks the talk, but Gay Penguin walks the walk.")"
- 4 Homosexual:; Between two or more persons perceived to be of the same sex or gender as each other.
"Although the number of gay weddings has increased significantly, many gay and lesbian couples — like many straight couples — are not interested in getting married."
- 5 Homosexual:; Not heterosexual, not allosexual, or not cisgender: homosexual, bisexual, asexual, transgender, etc. colloquial
Show 13 more definitions
- 6 Homosexual:; Intended for gay people, especially gay men.
"She professes an undying love for gay bars and gay movies, and even admits to having watched gay porn."
- 7 Homosexual:; Homosexually in love with someone. slang
"[…] the pirates, who are obviously totally gay for each other […]"
- 8 Homosexual:; Infatuated with something, aligning with homosexual stereotypes. humorous, slang
"Vanilla straight guy here. […] Is it socially acceptable for me to good-naturedly say, "I'm totally gay for musical theater"?"
- 9 Homosexual:; In accordance with stereotypes of homosexual people:; Being in accordance with stereotypes of gay people, especially gay men. broadly
- 10 Homosexual:; In accordance with stereotypes of homosexual people:; Exhibiting appearance or behavior that accords with stereotypes of gay people, especially gay men. broadly
"This incident has become a source of much discussion, and the jury is still out on who is more gay: the guy who touched a dick or the guy who let a guy touch his dick."
- 11 Effeminate or flamboyant in behavior. derogatory, pejorative, slang
- 12 Used to express dislike: lame, uncool, stupid, burdensome, contemptible, generally bad. derogatory, pejorative, slang
"This game is gay; let’s play a different one."
- 13 Happy, joyful, and lively. dated
"The Gay Science"
- 14 Quick, fast. dated
"I went a gay shack, / For it started to rain."
- 15 Festive, bright, or colourful. dated
"Pennsylvania Dutch include the plain folk and the gay folk."
- 16 Sexually promiscuous (of any gender), (sometimes particularly) engaged in prostitution. obsolete
"As our heroes passed along the Strand, they were accosted by a hundred gay ladies, who asked them if they were good-natured. "Devil take me!" exclaimed Echo, "if I know which way my ship heads; but there is not a girl in the Strand that I would touch with my gloves on.""
- 17 Upright or curved over the back.
"While the dog in concentrating at a given task, the tail is carried low and used for balance. In excitement it may rise level with the back. A “gay” tail is a fault."
- 18 Considerable, great, large in number, size, or degree. In this sense, also in the variant gey. Northern-England, Scotland, obsolete, possibly
"As his reply was rather characteristic, I will give it : Many of them come a gay bit off."
Adjective
- 1 bright and pleasant; promoting a feeling of cheer wordnet
- 2 brightly colored and showy wordnet
- 3 homosexual or arousing homosexual desires wordnet
- 4 given to social pleasures often including dissipation wordnet
- 5 offering fun and gaiety wordnet
Show 1 more definition
- 6 full of or showing high-spirited merriment wordnet
Adverb
- 1 Considerably, very. Northern-England, Scotland
"And, tho' his guts ware lank and toom, / They're twice as big's this gay big room."
Proper Noun
- 1 An English surname transferred from the nickname, originally a nickname for a cheerful or lively person.
- 2 A unisex given name from English.; A female given name from English, from the word gay (“joyful”); rare today.
- 3 A unisex given name from English.; A male given name from English.
""Mr Gay Brawls. What a name." "It didn't use to mean what it means now. Plenty were named Gay. Even in Nevada. Was old Gay Pitch had a gas station in Winnemucca. Nobody thought nothin about it and he raised a railroad car of kids."
- 4 A unisex given name from English.; A male given name from English.; A male given name transferred from the surname.
- 5 A unisex given name from English.; A male given name from English.; A diminutive of the male given names Gaylord or Gabriel, and similar names
"- - - my father's father, Gaetano Talese (whose name I inherited after my birth in 1932, in the anglicized form "Gay"), was an atypically fearless traveler,"
Example
"My parents would repudiate my brother if they ever found out he was gay."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "gay"?
Common synonyms include: merry, abandoned, ac-dc, active, addled, alert.
How do you use "gay" in a sentence?
My parents would repudiate my brother if they ever found out he was gay.
How do you pronounce "gay"?
Pronounced /ɡeɪ/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English gay, from Old French gai (“joyful, laughing, merry”), usually thought to be a borrowing of Old Occitan gai (“impetuous, lively”), from Gothic *𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍃 (*gaheis, “impetuous”), merging with earlier Old French jai ("merry"; see jay), from Frankish *gāhi; both from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden”). This is possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- (“to stride, step”), from *ǵʰeh₁- (“to leave”), but Kroonen rejects this derivation and treats the Germanic word as having no known etymology. cognates and sense derivation Cognate with Dutch gauw (“fast, quickly”), Westphalian Low German gau, gai (“fast, quick”), German jäh (“abrupt, sudden”). Anatoly Liberman, following Frank Chance and Harri Meier, believes Old French gai was instead a native development from Latin vagus (“wandering, inconstant, flighty”), with *[w] > [g] as in French gaine. The sense of homosexual (first recorded no later than 1937 by Cary Grant in the film Bringing Up Baby, and possibly earlier in 1922 in the poem "Miss Furr and Miss Skeene" by Gertrude Stein) was shortened from earlier gay cat ("homosexual boy") in underworld and prison slang, itself first attested about 1935, but used earlier for a young tramp or hobo attached to an older one. Pejorative usage is due to hostility towards homosexuality. The sense of ‘upright’, used in reference to a dog’s tail, probably derives from the ‘happy’ sense of the word.
Etymology 2
From Pitman kay, which it is derived from graphically, and the sound it represents. The traditional name gee was considered inappropriate, as the Pitman letter never has the sound of that name.