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PlainSpell

gaffer

/ɡæfɚ/noun

gaffer is spelled G-A-F-F-E-R: 6 letters. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 48,775th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, gaffer means “A chief lighting technician for a motion-picture or television production” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gaffer is gaffers.

How many letters and syllables are in gaffer?

Letters6: G-A-F-F-E-R
In writingabout once in every 3 million words; the 48,775th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is gaffer?

Gaffer appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 48,775th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce gaffer?

  • US /ɡæfɚ/
  • UK /ɡæfə/

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-gaffer.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of gaffer

  • gaffers plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does gaffer mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A chief lighting technician for a motion-picture or television production.

  2. 2

    A glassblower.

  3. 3

    Someone aboard a boat whose duty is to gaff a (large) fish once the angler has reeled it in.

  4. 4

    colloquialAn old person, usually a man.

  5. 5

    UKinformalThe leader of a group or team, such as a boss, foreman, coach, or publican.

  6. 6

    A sailor.

  7. 7

    CanadaThe baby in the house.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Gaffer in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchéclairagiste (chief lighting technician), contre-maître (foreman)
GermanOberbeleuchter (chief lighting technician)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does gaffer come from?

From gaff (“hook”) + -er.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after gaffer