gulf

English · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

gulf¹

  • /ɡʌlf/
  • /ɡɒlf/

Sounds like golf (gulf–golf merger) · Rhymes with -ʌlf, -ɒlf

Where it comes from

From Middle English gulf, goulf, golf, from Old French golf, from Italian golfo, from Late Latin colfos, from Ancient Greek κόλπος (kólpos, “bosom, gulf”), of obscure origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kʷelp- (“to curve, arch”).

noun gulfs · gulph

  1. A hollow place in the earth; an abyss; a deep chasm or basin. He then surveyed / Hell and the gulf between.
  2. obsolete That which swallows; the gullet. Witch's mummy, maw and gulf / Of the ravined salt sea shark,
  3. That which swallows irretrievably; a whirlpool; a sucking eddy. [T]here is no such mine, / None; but a gulf of ruin, swallowing gold, not making.
  4. A portion of an ocean or sea extending into the land; a partially landlocked sea the Gulf of Mexico
  5. A large deposit of ore in a lode.
  6. figuratively A wide interval or gap; a separating space. Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.
  7. figuratively A difference, especially a large difference, between groups. Only the gulf between them was widened still further by the Negro cops in the precinct, bad-mouthing among themselves about their fellow white cops unnecessarily throwing their authority around and singling out Sullivan as a prime example.

    Similar: abyss, rift

  8. The bottom part of a list of those awarded a degree, for those who have only just passed. Some ten or fifteen men just on the line, not enough to be plucked or good enough to be placed, are put into the "gulf," as it is popularly called (the Examiners' phrase is "Degrees allowed"), and have their degrees given to them but are not printed in the calendar, nor were they at this time allowe

verb gulfs · gulfing · gulfed · gulph

  1. transitive To engulf. […] if with thee the roaring wells ⁠Should gulf him fathom-deep in brine; ⁠And hands so often clasp’d in mine, Should toss with tangle and with shells.
  2. transitive To award a degree to somebody who has only just passed sufficiently. The mention of gulfed and plucked men brings me back to myself.

Gulf²

proper noun the Gulf

  1. The Persian Gulf, or the region surrounding it. Gulf States
  2. The Gulf of Mexico, or the region surrounding it. Gulf States
  3. An epoch constituting a subdivision of the Cretaceous.

    Similar: Gulfian

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: chasm, abyss, brink, sinkhole, cesspool, ditch, pit, graben, moat, loophole, rift, cleavage, wave, distance, gap, fracture

Translations

Every language

noun geography

Españolgolfo
한국어만 man
日本語湾 wan
中文灣 /湾 wān, 海灣 /海湾 hǎiwān
हिन्दीखाड़ी khāṛī, उपसागर upsāgar
Kiswahilighuba
Portuguêsgolfo
Françaisgolfe
DeutschGolf, Meerbusen, Bucht
Italianogolfo
Ελληνικάκόλπος kólpos
Românăgolf
Русскийзали́в zalív, пучи́на pučína
Tiếng Việtvịnh
العربيةخَلِيج ḵalīj
עבריתמִפְרָץ mifráts

name Translations

FrançaisGolfe
العربيةالْخَلِيج al-ḵalīj

Talk about this word

Cite this
MLA

"gulf." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/gulf. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

gulf. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/gulf

Chicago

"gulf." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/gulf.

BibTeX
@misc{gulf_2026,
  title = {gulf},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/gulf},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}