Skip to main content
PlainSpell

gate

/ˈɡeɪ̯t/noun, verb

gate is spelled G-A-T-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 30 times per million words in written English, the 3,161st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “gait vs gate” about 140 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, gate means “A doorlike structure outside a house” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gate is gates.

How many letters and syllables are in gate?

Letters4: G-A-T-E
Syllables1
In writing30 times per million words; the 3,161st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is gate?

Gate appears 30 times per million words in written English, the 3,161st 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 gate?

  • US /ˈɡeɪ̯t/
  • Australia /ˈɡæɪ̯t/
  • Australia [ˈɡæ̝ɪ̯t]

Gate has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-gate.ogg, En-au-gate.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with gate

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

gait vs gate140 G

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with gate?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as gate from its last stressed vowel (/eɪt/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: geta, geat, tega.

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 gate

  • gates plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • yate
  • gating participle, present
  • gated participle, past

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

What does gate mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A doorlike structure outside a house.

  2. 2

    A doorway, opening, or passage in a fence or wall.

  3. 3

    A movable barrier.

    The gate in front of the railroad crossing went up after the train had passed.

  4. 4

    A passageway (as in an air terminal) where passengers can embark or disembark.

  5. 5

    A location which serves as a conduit for transport, migration, or trade.

  6. 6

    The amount of money made by selling tickets to a concert or a sports event.

  7. 7

    A logical pathway made up of switches which turn on or off. Examples are and, or, nand, etc.

  8. 8

    The controlling terminal of a field effect transistor (FET).

  9. 9

    ScotlandA way, path.

  10. 10

    obsoleteA journey.

  11. 11

    ScotlandA street; now used especially as a combining form to make the name of a street e.g. “Briggate” (a common street name in the north of England meaning “Bridge Street”) or “Kirkgate” meaning “Church Street”.

  12. 12

    ScotlandUKarchaicManner; gait.

verb

  1. 1

    To keep something inside by means of a closed gate.

  2. 2

    datedTo punish (a student) by not allowing to leave the college grounds.

  3. 3

    To open (a closed ion channel).

  4. 4

    To furnish with a gate.

  5. 5

    To turn (an image intensifier) on and off selectively, as needed or to avoid damage from excessive light exposure. See autogating.

  6. 6

    To selectively regulate or restrict (access to something).

    Access to the building is gated by a security system.

noun

as GATE
  1. 1

    gifted and talented education

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

Gate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
French-gate (component in names of scandals), portail, porte (door-like structure outside), porte logique (computing: logical pathway), grille ((electronics) name of one terminal of a…)
German-gate (component in names of scandals), Tor (door-like structure outside), Flugsteig, Gate (in an air terminal)
Portuguese-lão (component in names of scandals), portão (door-like structure outside), porta (in an air terminal)
Spanishpuerta, portón, portalón (door-like structure outside), reja, verja (doorway, opening, or passage in a fence or wall)

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 gate come from?

From Middle English gate (the forms ȝate and ȝeat yielded the dialectal doublet yate), from the plural of Old English ġeat (specifically gatu), from Proto-West Germanic *gat, from Proto-Germanic *gatą (“hole, opening”). See also Old Norse gat, Swedish and Dutch gat, Low German Gaat, Gööt.

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

What to look up after gate