# gallop

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈɡæləp/ · frequency rank #27,850

## Definitions
1. The fastest gait of a horse, a two-beat stride during which all four legs are off the ground simultaneously.
2. An act or instance of going or running rapidly.
3. An abnormal rhythm of the heart, made up of three or four sounds, like a horse's gallop.
4. A rhythm consisting of an 8th note followed by two 16th notes, resembling a horse's gallop.

## Etymology
From Middle English galopen (“to gallop”), from Old French galoper (compare modern French galoper), from Frankish *wala hlaupan (“to run well”), from *wala (“well”) + *hlaupan (“to run”), from Proto-Germanic *hlaupaną (“to run, leap, spring”), from Proto-Indo-European *klaup-, *klaub- (“to spring, stumble”). Possibly also derived from a deverbal of Frankish *walhlaup (“battle run”) from *wal (“battlefield”) from a Proto-Germanic word meaning "dead, victim, slain" from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“death in battle, killed in battle”) + *hlaup (“course, track”) from *hlaupan (“to run”).
More at well, leap, valkyrie. See also the doublet wallop, coming from the same source through an Old Northern French variant.

## Easily confused with
- **Gallup** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gallop-vs-gallup)
- **gallows** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gallop-vs-gallows)
- **gall** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gall-vs-gallop)
- **Gallo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gallo-vs-gallop)
- **gallon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gallon-vs-gallop)
- **galley** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/galley-vs-gallop)
- **Gallic** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gallic-vs-gallop)
- **galleon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/galleon-vs-gallop)

## Common misspellings (7)
`agllop`, `gallopp`, `gallpo`, `galolp`, `galop`, `ggallop`, `glalop`

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