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PlainSpell

gorge

/ɡɔɹd͡ʒ/noun, verb, adjective

gorge is spelled G-O-R-G-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,122nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Gorge, the name). As a noun, gorge means “The throat of a flower” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gorge is gorges.

How many letters and syllables are in gorge?

Letters5: G-O-R-G-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.5 times per million words; the 17,122nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
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 gorge?

Gorge appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,122nd most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Gorge, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce gorge?

  • UK /ɡɔːdʒ/
  • US /ɡɔɹd͡ʒ/

Gorge 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-I_learned_some_phrases-gorge.wav, En-us-gorge.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with gorge

Sounds like: gorg (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with gorge?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as gorge from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɹdʒ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: grego.

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 gorge

  • gorges plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • gorging participle, present
  • gorged participle, past
  • more gorge comparative
  • most gorge superlative
  • gorg

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

What does gorge mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    archaicThe front aspect of the neck; the outside of the throat.

  2. 2

    archaicThe inside of the throat; the esophagus, the gullet; (falconry, specifically) the crop or gizzard of a hawk.

  3. 3

    The throat of a flower.

  4. 4

    Food that has been taken into the gullet or the stomach, particularly if it is regurgitated or vomited out.

    My gorge rises at the sight of it.

  5. 5

    USA choking or filling of a channel or passage by an obstruction; the obstruction itself.

    an ice gorge in a river

  6. 6

    A concave moulding; a cavetto.

  7. 7

    The rearward side of an outwork, a bastion, or a fort, often open, or not protected against artillery; a narrow entry passage into the outwork of an enclosed fortification.

  8. 8

    A primitive device used instead of a hook to catch fish, consisting of an object that is easy to swallow but difficult to eject or loosen, such as a piece of bone or stone pointed at each end and attached in the middle to a line.

  9. 9

    An act of gorging.

verb

  1. 1

    To stuff the gorge or gullet with food; to eat greedily and in large quantities.

    They gorged themselves on chocolate and cake.

  2. 2

    To swallow, especially with greediness, or in large mouthfuls or quantities.

  3. 3

    To fill up to the throat; to glut, to satiate.

  4. 4

    To fill up (an organ, a vein, etc.); to block up or obstruct; (US, specifically) of ice: to choke or fill a channel or passage, causing an obstruction.

adjective

  1. 1

    slangGorgeous.

    Oh, look at him: isn’t he gorge?

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

Gorge in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchgorge (The front aspect of the neck), gorger, se gorger, se goinfrer (to stuff the gorge or gullet with food; to eat…)
GermanGurgel, Kehle (The front aspect of the neck), sich vollfressen, sich vollstopfen (to stuff the gorge or gullet with food; to eat…), Speiseröhre (inside of the throat – see also gullet), Schlucht (deep, narrow passage with steep, rocky sides)
Spanishgorja, garganta (The front aspect of the neck), atiborrarse de, hartarse de, devorar (to stuff the gorge or gullet with food; to eat…), desfiladero (deep, narrow passage with steep, rocky sides)
Portugueseempanturrar-se de, devorar (to stuff the gorge or gullet with food; to eat…), garganta, gorja (inside of the throat – see also gullet)

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 gorge come from?

From Middle English gorge (“esophagus, gullet; throat; bird's crop; food in a hawk's crop; food or drink that has been eaten”), a borrowing from Old French gorge (“throat”) (modern French gorge (“throat; breast”)), from Vulgar Latin *gorga, *gurga, from Latin gurges (“eddy, whirlpool; gulf; sea”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour, swallow; to eat”). The English word is cognate with Galician gorxa (“throat”), Italian gorga, gorgia (“gorge, ravine; (obsolete) throat”), Occitan gorga, gorja, Portuguese gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”), Spanish gorja (“gullet, throat; gorge”).

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

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