11 results for: gamut

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
gam·ut    Audio Help   [gam-uht] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1.the entire scale or range: the gamut of dramatic emotion from grief to joy.
2.Music.
a.the whole series of recognized musical notes.
b.the major scale.

[Origin: 1425–75; late ME < ML; contr. of gamma ut, equiv. to gamma, used to represent the first or lowest tone (G) in the medieval scale + ut (later do); the notes of the scale (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si) being named from a Latin hymn to St. John the Baptist: Ut queant laxis resonare fibris. Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte Iohannes]

1. sweep, breadth, scope, reach, extent, field.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
gamut

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
gam·ut    Audio Help   (gām'ət)  Pronunciation Key 
n.  
  1. A complete range or extent: a face that expressed a gamut of emotions, from rage to peaceful contentment.
  2. Music The entire series of recognized notes.


[Middle English, the musical scale, from Medieval Latin gamma ut, low G : gamma, lowest note of the medieval scale (from Greek, gamma; see gamma) + ut, first note of the lowest hexachord (after ut, first word in a Latin hymn to Saint John the Baptist, the initial syllables of successive lines of which were sung to the notes of an ascending scale CDEFGA: Ut queant laxis resonare fibris Mira gestorum famuli tuorum, Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte Iohannes).]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry:  gamut1
Part of Speech:  n
Definition:  the full range or compass of recognized musical notes; by extension, the compass of an instrument or voice
Etymology:  Medieval Latin gamma 'G' + ut 'lowest note'

Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7)
Copyright © 2003-2008 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC
Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry:  gamut2
Part of Speech:  n
Definition:  the first or lowest note of the Guidonian musical scale
Etymology:  Medieval Latin gamma 'G' + ut 'lowest note'

Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7)
Copyright © 2003-2008 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC
Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English - Cite This Source - Share This
Main Entry:  gamut3
Part of Speech:  n
Definition:  the full range or compass of something; a range from one extreme to the other
Etymology:  Medieval Latin gamma 'G' + ut 'lowest note'

Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7)
Copyright © 2003-2008 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC
Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
gamut 
1530, originally, "lowest note in the medieval musical scale," in the system of notation devised by Guido d'Arezzo, contraction of M.L. gamma ut, from gamma, the Gk. letter, indicating a note below A + ut (later do), the low note on the six-note musical scale that took names from corresponding syllables in a L. hymn for St. John the Baptist's Day:
"Ut queant laxis resonare fibris
Mira gestorum famuli tuorum
Solve polluti labii reatum,"
etc. Gamut came to be used for "the whole musical scale" by 1529; the figurative sense of "entire scale or range" of anything is first recorded 1626.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
gamut

noun
1. a complete extent or range: "a face that expressed a gamut of emotions" 
2. the entire scale of musical notes 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This

gamut
The gamut of a monitor is the set of colours it can display. There are some colours which can't be made up of a mixture of red, green and blue phosphor emissions and so can't be displayed by any monitor.
[Examples?]
(1994-11-29)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Gamut

Gam"ut\, n. [F. gamme + ut the name of a musical note. F. gamme is fr. the name of the Greek letter ?, which was used by Guido d'Arezzo to represent the first note of his model scale. See Gamma, and Ut.] (Mus.) The scale.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

gamut

Scale\, n. [L. scalae, pl., scala staircase, ladder; akin to scandere to climb. See Scan; cf. Escalade.]

1. A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending. [Obs.]

2. Hence, anything graduated, especially when employed as a measure or rule, or marked by lines at regular intervals. Specifically: (a) A mathematical instrument, consisting of a slip of wood, ivory, or metal, with one or more sets of spaces graduated and numbered on its surface, for measuring or laying off distances, etc., as in drawing, plotting, and the like. See Gunter's scale. (b) A series of spaces marked by lines, and representing proportionately larger distances; as, a scale of miles, yards, feet, etc., for a map or plan. (c) A basis for a numeral system; as, the decimal scale; the binary scale, etc. (d) (Mus.) The graduated series of all the tones, ascending or descending, from the keynote to its octave; -- called also the gamut. It may be repeated through any number of octaves. See Chromatic scale, Diatonic scale, Major scale, and Minor scale, under Chromatic, Diatonic, Major, and Minor.

3. Gradation; succession of ascending and descending steps and degrees; progressive series; scheme of comparative rank or order; as, a scale of being.

There is a certain scale of duties . . . which for want of studying in right order, all the world is in confusion. --Milton.

4. Relative dimensions, without difference in proportion of parts; size or degree of the parts or components in any complex thing, compared with other like things; especially, the relative proportion of the linear dimensions of the parts of a drawing, map, model, etc., to the dimensions of the corresponding parts of the object that is represented; as, a map on a scale of an inch to a mile.

Scale of chords, a graduated scale on which are given the lengths of the chords of arcs from 0[deg] to 90[deg] in a circle of given radius, -- used in measuring given angles and in plotting angles of given numbers of degrees.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

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