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PlainSpell

gaze

/ɡeɪz/verb, noun

gaze is spelled G-A-Z-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.0 times per million words in written English, the 11,198th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, gaze means “To stare intently or earnestly” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in gaze?

Letters4: G-A-Z-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing5.0 times per million words; the 11,198th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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).

How common is gaze?

Gaze appears 5.0 times per million words in written English, the 11,198th 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 gaze?

  • /ɡeɪz/
  • Australia /ˈɡæɪz/

Gaze 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: En-us-gaze.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of gaze

  • gazes present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • gazing participle, present
  • gazed participle, past

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

What does gaze mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To stare intently or earnestly.

    They gazed at the stars for hours.

  2. 2

    To stare at.

noun

  1. 1

    A fixed look; a look of eagerness, wonder, or admiration; a continued look of attention.

  2. 2

    archaicThe object gazed on.

  3. 3

    In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the relationship of the subject with the desire to look and awareness that one can be viewed.

  4. 4

    The framework in which a subject is presented, determined by the biases of the creator and/or audience.

  5. 5

    A group of raccoons.

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

Gaze in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfixer (to stare intently or earnestly), regard (fixed look)
Germanstarren (to stare intently or earnestly), anstarren (to stare at)
Portuguesecontemplar (to stare intently or earnestly), olhar, mirada (fixed look)
Spanishobservar (to stare intently or earnestly), mirada (fixed look), mirar fijamente (to stare at)

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 gaze come from?

From Middle English gasen; akin to Swedish dialectal gasa and Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌲𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (usgaisjan, “to terrify”).

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

What to look up after gaze