gong
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gong¹
- /ɡɒŋ/ UK
- /ɡɔŋ/ US
- /ɡɑŋ/ cot caught merger
Rhymes with -ɒŋ
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Malay gong (possibly onomatopoeic).
noun gong ] · gongs
- A percussion instrument consisting of a metal disk that emits a loud resonant sound when struck with a soft hammer. All the time six or eight large Chinese gongs were being beaten by the vigorous arms of as many young men, producing such a deafening discord that I was glad to escape to the round house, where I slept very comfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head.
- A medal or award, particularly Knight Bachelor. This grooming of the national mindset explains the retention of 92 "hereditary peers" in the House of Lords: individuals who are gifted a right to sit in the nation's upper chamber and facilitate laws for no other reason than that their ancestor was the illegitimate child of some prince, or willing
- A metal target that emits a sound when it has been hit. Weems picked up the hammer and hit the gong so hard that it spun right around on its hanger and fell off.
verb gongs · gonging · gonged
- To make the sound of a gong; to ring a gong. Poor old Pyecraft! He has just gonged, no doubt to order another buttered tea-cake!
- To halt (originally, a contestant in a talent show; later, a performer, a speaker). As she was gonged, host Daryl Somers swept rapidly across and salvaged an embarrassing situation by putting his arm around her and asking her whether she had children.
- To warn. The driver gonged the pedestrian crossing the tracks, but the pedestrian didn't stop.
- To give an award or medal to. In 1972 he was awarded the British Red Cross Silver Medal for his services to the Red Cross. In 1978 he was 'gonged' once again, this time with the Queen's Jubilee Medal, marking the 25th year of her reign.
gong²
- /ɡɒŋ/ UK
- /ɡɔŋ/ US
- /ɡɑŋ/ cot caught merger
Rhymes with -ɒŋ
Where it comes from
From Middle English gong, from Old English gong, where it was originally a variant of the noun gang (“a going, walk, journey, way, etc.”), derived from the verb gangan (“to go, walk, travel”), whose relation to go in Proto-Germanic remains unclear. Doublet of gang.
gong³
- /ɡɒŋ/ UK
- /ɡɔŋ/ US
- /ɡɑŋ/ cot caught merger
Rhymes with -ɒŋ
Where it comes from
From Mandarin 功 (gōng, “merit; achievement”).
noun
- A kind of cultivation energy, more powerful than qi.
- An advanced practice that cultivates such energy.
Gong⁴
Rhymes with -ʊŋ
proper noun the Gong
- Wollongong.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: tam-tam, bell, chime, public, buzzer, success, avail, merit, cult, bow, credit, king, emperor, palace, temple, causeway
Translations
Every language
Talk about this word "gong." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/gong. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. gong. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/gong "gong." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/gong.Cite this
@misc{gong_2026,
title = {gong},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/gong},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
