What does "gonna" mean?

A modal used to express a future action that is being planned or prepared for in the present.

What is a synonym for "gonna"?

Common synonyms include: be going to.

Gonna

//ˈɡʌnə// verb, slang

verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb

1
A modal used to express a future action that is being planned or prepared for in the present. auxiliary, colloquial
"I'm gonna hafta find a new job soon."

Synonyms

All synonyms

be going to

Example

More examples

"Let's face it, it's impossible. We're never gonna make it."

Etymology

Contraction of going to. Attested since 1913 (OED, "gonna"). The pronunciation of present participles with the sound n rather than ng has a long history (see g-dropping on Wikipedia).

Related phrases

going to i'm onna

More for "gonna"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.