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gall

UK /ɡɔːl/noun, verb

gall is spelled G-A-L-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,589th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, gall means “Impudence or brazenness; temerity; chutzpah” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gall is galls.

How many letters and syllables are in gall?

Letters4: G-A-L-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.0 times per million words; the 19,589th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

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 gall?

Gall appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,589th 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 gall?

  • UK /ɡɔːl/
  • British /ɡoːl/
  • /ɡɔl/

Gall 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-gall.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with gall?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as gall from its last stressed vowel (/ɔl/, British pronunciation):

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 gall

  • galls plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • galling participle, present
  • galled participle, past

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

What does gall mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Impudence or brazenness; temerity; chutzpah.

  2. 2

    archaicA gallbladder.

  3. 3

    archaicBile, especially that of an animal; the greenish, profoundly bitter-tasting fluid found in bile ducts and gall bladders, structures associated with the liver.

  4. 4

    Great misery or physical suffering, likened to the bitterest-tasting of substances.

  5. 5

    A sore on a horse caused by an ill-fitted or ill-adjusted saddle; a saddle sore.

    Riding a horse with bruised or broken skin can cause a gall, which frequently results in the white saddle marks seen on the withers and backs of some horses.

  6. 6

    A sore or open wound caused by chafing, which may become infected, as with a blister.

  7. 7

    A feeling of exasperation.

  8. 8

    A pit on a surface being cut caused by the friction between the two surfaces exceeding the bond of the material at a point.

  9. 9

    A blister or tumor-like growth found on the surface of plants, caused by various pathogens, especially the burrowing of insect larvae into the living tissues, such as that of the common oak gall wasp (Cynips quercusfolii).

  10. 10

    A bump-like imperfection resembling a gall.

verb

  1. 1

    To chafe, to rub or subject to friction; to create a sore on the skin.

  2. 2

    To bother or trouble.

  3. 3

    To harass, to harry, often with the intent to cause injury.

  4. 4

    To exasperate.

  5. 5

    To cause pitting on a surface being cut from the friction between the two surfaces exceeding the bond of the material at a point.

    Improper cooling and a dull milling cutter on titanium can gall the surface.

  6. 6

    obsoleterareTo scoff; to jeer.

  7. 7

    To impregnate with a decoction of gallnuts in dyeing.

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

Gall in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchculot, effronterie, toupet (impudence or brazenness), déranger, gêner, troubler (to trouble or bother)
GermanFrechheit, Unverfrorenheit (impudence or brazenness), stören, lästigfallen (to trouble or bother), wundreiben, wundscheuern (to chafe)
Portugueseimpudência (impudence or brazenness), miséria, penúria, amargura (great misery or physical suffering), esfolamento (sore or open wound caused by chafing), exasperação (feeling of exasperation)
Spanishdescaro, desfachatez (impudence or brazenness), incomodar (to trouble or bother), penuria, doloroso (great misery or physical suffering), exasperar (to exasperate)

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 gall come from?

From Middle English galle, from Old English ġealla, galla, from Proto-West Germanic *gallā, from Proto-Germanic *gallǭ. The figurative senses (e.g., impudence, brazenness, chutzpah) are related to the literal sense (i.e., bile) via the lasting linguocultural effects of humorism, which governed Western medicine for many centuries before the advent of scientific medicine. Related to Dutch gal, German Galle, Swedish galle, galla, Ancient Greek χολή (kholḗ). Also remotely related with yellow and gold.

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

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