# gorge

> English word · Noun · IPA /ɡɔːdʒ/ · frequency rank #17,149

## Definitions
1. The front aspect of the neck; the outside of the throat.
2. The inside of the throat; the esophagus, the gullet; (falconry, specifically) the crop or gizzard of a hawk.
3. The throat of a flower.
4. Food that has been taken into the gullet or the stomach, particularly if it is regurgitated or vomited out.
5. A choking or filling of a channel or passage by an obstruction; the obstruction itself.
6. A concave moulding; a cavetto.
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. 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. A deep, narrow passage with steep, rocky sides, particularly one with a stream running through it; a ravine.
10. The groove of a pulley.
11. A whirlpool used as a heraldic charge.

## Etymology
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”). Doublet of gour and gurges.

## Easily confused with
- **GRE** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gorge-vs-gre)
- **gory** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gorge-vs-gory)
- **gove** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gorge-vs-gove)
- **Gough** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gorge-vs-gough)
- **gouge** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gorge-vs-gouge)
- **gorgon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gorge-vs-gorgon)
- **gor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gor-vs-gorge)
- **gog** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gog-vs-gorge)
- **gone** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gone-vs-gorge)
- **gore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gore-vs-gorge)
- **gong** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gong-vs-gorge)
- **gage** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gage-vs-gorge)
- **gogo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gogo-vs-gorge)
- **gare** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gare-vs-gorge)
- **Gere** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gere-vs-gorge)
- **gauge** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gauge-vs-gorge)
- **goose** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/goose-vs-gorge)
- **Georg** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/georg-vs-gorge)
- **goode** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/goode-vs-gorge)
- **Gordy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/gordy-vs-gorge)

## Common misspellings (7)
`ggorge`, `gogre`, `goreg`, `gorgge`, `gorrge`, `groge`, `ogrge`

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