gale
/ɡeɪl/verb, noun
gale is spelled G-A-L-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, gale means “To cry; groan; croak” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in gale?
| Letters | 4: G-A-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.2 times per million words; the 12,578th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is gale?
Gale appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th 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 gale?
- /ɡeɪl/
Gale has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-gale.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-gale.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with gale
Sounds like: Gail (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with gale?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as gale.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: lage, egal, geal.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of gale
- gales present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- galing participle, present
- galed past, participle
- gole past, participle
- galen participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does gale mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To cry; groan; croak.
- 2
To talk.
- 3
To sing; utter with musical modulations.
- 4
To sail, or sail fast.
noun
- 1
A very strong wind, more than a breeze, less than a storm; number 7 through to 9 winds on the 12-step Beaufort scale.
It's blowing a gale outside.
- 2
An outburst, especially of laughter.
a gale of laughter
- 3
archaicA light breeze.
- 4
A shrub, also called sweet gale or bog myrtle (Myrica gale), that grows on moors and fens.
- 5
archaicA periodic payment, such as is made of a rent or annuity.
Gale day - the day on which rent or interest is due.
- 6
The personal mining plot of a freeminer.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Gale in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | coup de vent , piment royal, myrte des marais, bois-sent-bon |
| German | Sturm , Gagel, Gagelstrauch |
| Portuguese | ventania, vendaval , samouco-do-brabante, frundinho |
| Spanish | ventolera, ventarrón, vendaval , mirto de Brabante, mirto de turbera |
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 gale come from?
From Middle English galen, from Old English galan (“to sing, enchant, call, cry, scream; sing charms, practice incantation”), from Proto-Germanic *galaną (“to roop, sing, charm”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel- (“to shout, scream, charm away”). Cognate with Danish gale (“to crow”), Swedish gala (“to crow”), Icelandic gala (“to sing, chant, crow”), Dutch galm (“echo, sound, noise”). Related to yell.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).