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PlainSpell

gander

/ˈɡæn.dɚ/noun, verb

gander is spelled G-A-N-D-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 33,236th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, gander means “A male goose” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gander is ganders.

How many letters and syllables are in gander?

Letters6: G-A-N-D-E-R
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 33,236th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
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 gander?

Gander appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 33,236th 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 gander?

  • UK /ˈɡæn.də(ɹ)/
  • US /ˈɡæn.dɚ/

Gander has 2 syllables (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-gander.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with gander?

11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as gander from its last stressed vowel (/ændəɹ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: garden, danger, grande, ranged.

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 gander

  • ganders plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • gandering participle, present
  • gandered participle, past

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

What does gander mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A male goose.

  2. 2

    A fool, simpleton.

  3. 3

    informalA glance, look.

    Have a gander at what he’s written.

  4. 4

    USA man living apart from his wife.

verb

  1. 1

    to ramble, wander

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

Gander in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchjars (a male goose)
GermanGänserich, Ganter, Ganser (a male goose), Blick ((slang) a look)
Portugueseganso (a male goose), olhada ((slang) a look), paspalhão (a fool, simpleton)
Spanishganso (a male goose), vistazo ((slang) a look)

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 gander come from?

From Middle English gandre, from Old English gandra, ganra (“gander”), from Proto-West Germanic *ganʀō, from Proto-Germanic *ganzô (“gander”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns (“goose”). The meaning "a look" is derived from the image of craning one's neck like a goose. The meaning 'a man apart from his wife' is derived from a concept of a grass widower, and of calling a husband a goose.

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

What to look up after gander