# gall

> English word · Noun · IPA /ɡɔːl/ · frequency rank #19,605

## Definitions
1. Impudence or brazenness; temerity; chutzpah.
2. A gallbladder.
3. Bile, especially that of an animal; the greenish, profoundly bitter-tasting fluid found in bile ducts and gall bladders, structures associated with the liver.
4. Great misery or physical suffering, likened to the bitterest-tasting of substances.

## Etymology
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.

## Easily confused with
- **GL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gl)
- **gas** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gas)
- **Gay** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gay)
- **gap** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gap)
- **gel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gel)
- **Gil** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gil)
- **GAO** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gao)
- **gan** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gan)
- **gar** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gar)
- **Gaz** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gaz)
- **gul** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gul)
- **gat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gat)
- **gam** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gam)
- **GLO** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-glo)
- **GOL** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gol)
- **game** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-game)
- **girl** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-girl)
- **gave** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gave)
- **gold** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gold)
- **goal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-goal)

## Common misspellings (3)
`agll`, `ggall`, `glal`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/gall