gas

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: găs, IPA^(key): /ɡæs/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• enPR: găz, IPA^(key): /ɡæz/ (en, regional)
• Rhymes: -æs
• Rhymes: -æz (some speakers)

Borrowed from Dutch gas, coined by chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont in Ortus Medicinae. Derived from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “chasm, void, empty space”); perhaps also inspired by geest (“breath, vapour, spirit”). Doublet of chaos. First attested in 1648.

gas (countable and uncountable, plural gases or gasses)

1. (uncountable, physical chemistry) Matter in an intermediate state between liquid and plasma that can be contained only if it is fully surrounded by a solid (or in a bubble of liquid, or held together by gravitational pull); it can condense into a liquid, or can (rarely) become a solid directly by deposition.
   • 2013 July–August, Lee S. Langston, “The Adaptable Gas Turbine”, in American Scientist‎, archived from the original on 7 September 2013:

     Turbines have been around for a long time—windmills and water wheels are early examples. The name comes from the Latin turbo, meaning vortex, and thus the defining property of a turbine is that a fluid or gas turns the blades of a rotor, which is attached to a shaft that can perform useful work.

   A lot of gas had escaped from the cylinder.

   Synonyms: vapor, vapour

   1. (uncountable) A flammable gaseous hydrocarbon or hydrocarbon mixture used as a fuel, e.g. for cooking, heating, electricity generation or as a fuel in internal combustion engines in vehicles, especially natural gas.

      Gas-fired power stations have largely replaced coal-burning ones.

   2. (uncountable, military) Poison gas.

      The artillery fired gas shells into the enemy trenches.

2. (countable, physical chemistry) A chemical element or compound in such a state.

   The atmosphere is made up of a number of different gases.

3. (countable) A hob on a gas cooker.

   She turned the gas on, put the potatoes on, then lit the oven.

4. (uncountable) Methane or other waste gases trapped in one's belly as a result of the digestive process; flatus.

   Synonym: wind

   My tummy hurts so bad – I have gas.

   • 2008, Nicholas Drayson, A Guide to the Birds of East Africa, page 72:

     But anyone with that many large brown birds aroost in his cranium and that much gas in his bottom was clearly not a well person.

5. (slang, dated) A humorous or entertaining event, person or thing.
   • 1963 May, Gloria Steinem, “A Bunny's Tale”, in Show Magazine‎, archived from the original on 2017-10-04:

     Two more girls came in, one in bright pink stretch pants and the other in purple. “Man this place is a gas,” said pink.

   • 1971, Marc Bolan (lyrics and music), “Life's a Gas”, in Electric Warrior, performed by T. Rex:

     No it really doesn't matter at all / Life's a gas / I hope it's going to last

   • 1973 March 1, “Money” (track 6), in The Dark Side of the Moon‎, performed by Pink Floyd:

     Money, it's a gas. Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.

   • 1978, “Heart of Glass”, in Parallel Lines, performed by Blondie:

     Once I had a love and it was a gas / Soon turned out had a heart of glass

   • 1979, “Belsen Was a Gas”, in The Great Rock ‛n’ Roll Swindle, performed by Sex Pistols:

     Be a man, Be a man / Belsen was a gas / Be a man, kill someone

   • 2011 October 11, “Jumping Jack Flash (Live 1973)” (track 14), in Brussels Affair (Live 1973)‎, performed by The Rolling Stones:

     One two! I was born in a cross-fire hurricane. And I howled at the maw in the drivin' rain. But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas. But it's all right. I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash. It's a gas, gas, gas.

6. (slang) Frothy or boastful talk; chatter.
   • 2017 July 1, “About That”, performed by Soph Aspin and Millie B:

     Bang, little boy, stop with the gas / Little T, man he chats up his ass

7. (baseball) A fastball.

   The closer threw him nothing but gas.

8. (medicine, colloquial) Arterial or venous blood gas.

• fluid
• liquid
• solid

gas (third-person singular simple present gases or gasses, present participle gassing, simple past and past participle gassed)

1. (transitive) To attack or kill with poison gas.

   The Nazis gassed millions of Jews during the Holocaust.

   He never fully recovered after he was gassed on the Western Front.

2. (intransitive, slang) To talk in a boastful or vapid way; chatter.
   • 1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock:

     […] (it was the town's humour to be always gassing of phantom investors who were likely to come any moment and pay a thousand prices for everything) — “ […] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their money. […] ”

   • 1955, C. S. Lewis, chapter 3, in The Magician's Nephew, Collins, published 1998:

     "Well don't keep on gassing about it," said Digory.

3. (transitive, slang) To impose upon by talking boastfully.
   • 2018 September 14, “Don't Gas Me” (track 1), in Don't Gas Me‎, performed by Dizzy Rascal:

     I went shop and the boss man said "Don't pay me it's fine" and I said ...(whaaat): "You ain't gotta gas, I'm gas fam" ( don't gas me), "You ain't gotta gas, I'm gas fam".

4. (intransitive) To emit gas.

   The battery cell was gassing.

5. (transitive) To impregnate with gas.

   to gas lime with chlorine in the manufacture of bleaching powder

6. (transitive) To singe, as in a gas flame, so as to remove loose fibers.

   to gas thread

Clipping of gasoline.

gas (countable and uncountable, plural gases or gasses)

1. (uncountable, Canada, US, New Zealand) Gasoline, a light derivative of petroleum used as fuel.

   Synonyms: (US) gasoline, (British) petrol, see also Thesaurus:petroleum

2. (uncountable, Canada, US, by extension) Ellipsis of gas pedal.
3. (uncountable, cryptocurrencies) An internal virtual currency used in Ethereum to pay for certain operations, such as blockchain transactions.

   Coordinate term: Ether

   gas fee

   • 2018, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Gavin Wood, Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and DApps‎, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN:

     Gas is the fuel of Ethereum. Gas is not ether–it's a separate virtual currency with its own exchange rate against ether. Ethereum uses gas to control the amount of resources that transactions can use […]

   • 2021 November 6, Ben Butler, “Australian banks are opening up to cryptocurrency: what does it mean for you?”, in The Guardian‎:

     The average “gas fee” – transaction cost – of an Ethereum transaction is between US$85 and US $156, according to crypto.com data.

4. (slang, uncountable) Marijuana, typically of high quality.

gas (third-person singular simple present gases or gasses, present participle gassing, simple past and past participle gassed)

1. (US) To give a vehicle more fuel in order to accelerate it.

   Synonyms: hit the gas, step on the gas

   The cops are coming. Gas it!

2. (US) To fill (a vehicle's fuel tank) with fuel.

   Synonym: refuel

• gas and dash, gas-and-dash
• gas and go, gas-and-go
• gas up

Compare the slang usage of "a gas", above.

gas (comparative gasser, superlative gassest)

1. (slang) Comical, zany; fun, amusing.

   Mary's new boyfriend is a gas man.

   It was gas when the bird flew into the classroom.

   • 2016, Liz Nugent, Lying In Wait, →ISBN, page 113:

     The other models were gas fun, though they were all a bit hoity-toity.

   • 2018 September 14, “Don't Gas Me” (track 1), in Don't Gas Me‎, performed by Dizzy Rascal:

     I went shop and the boss man said "Don't pay me it's fine" and I said ...(whaaat): "You ain't gotta gas, I'm gas fam" ( don't gas me), "You ain't gotta gas, I'm gas fam".

• AGS, AGs, Ags., GSA, SAG, SGA, Sag, sag

From Dutch gast.

gas (plural gaste)

1. guest

From Dutch gas.

gas (plural gasse)

1. gas (substance in gaseous phase)

• Audio

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gas inan

1. gas

• gaseoso

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencian) [ˈɡas]

• Audio

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gas m (plural gasos)

1. gas

• gasificar
• gasolina

• “gas” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “gas”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “gas” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “gas” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

From English gas.

gas

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) gas (fuel)

• IPA^(key): /ɣɑs/
• Hyphenation: gas
• Rhymes: -ɑs

Coined by chemist Jan Baptiste van Helmont in Ortus Medicinae (1648), by way of deliberate similarity to Greek χάος (cháos, “chasm, void, chaos”).

gas n (plural gassen, diminutive gasje n)

1. gas
2. liquefied petroleum gas

   Synonyms: autogas, LPG

From Middle Dutch gasse (“unpaved street”), from Middle High German gazze, from Old High German gazza, from Proto-Germanic *gatwǭ.

gas f (plural gassen, diminutive gasje n)

1. unpaved street

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

gas

1. inflection of gassen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

gas m (plural gases)

1. gas

   Synonym: vapor

• gas nobre

• gasoso

• IPA^(key): /kaːs/
• Rhymes: -aːs

Borrowed from Dutch gas.

gas n (genitive singular gass, nominative plural gös)

1. gas (state of matter)

• táragas

Borrowed from French gaze.

gas n (genitive singular gass, no plural)

1. gauze

• gasbleia

• sag

From Dutch gas (“gas”), a term coined by chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont. Perhaps inspired by geest (“breath, vapour, spirit”) or by chaos (“chaos”), from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “chasm, void”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡas]
• Hyphenation: gas

gas (plural gas-gas, first-person possessive gasku, second-person possessive gasmu, third-person possessive gasnya)

1. gas
   1. (chemistry, physics) Matter in a state intermediate between liquid and plasma that can be contained only if it is fully surrounded by a solid (or in a bubble of liquid) (or held together by gravitational pull); it can condense into a liquid, or can (rarely) become a solid directly.
   2. A flammable gaseous hydrocarbon or hydrocarbon mixture (typically predominantly methane) used as a fuel, e.g. for cooking, heating, electricity generation or as a fuel in internal combustion engines in vehicles.

gas

1. (colloquial) to hit the gas, to accelerate.

   Synonym: mengegas

• “gas” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

gas (plural gases)

1. gas

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• (Munster) IPA^(key): [ɡɑsˠ]
• (Connacht, Ulster) IPA^(key): [ɡasˠ]

gas m (genitive singular gais, nominative plural gais or gasa)

1. stalk, stem
2. sprig, shoot, frond
3. (figuratively) stripling; scion

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “gas”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Entries containing “gas” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
• Entries containing “gas” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡas/
• Rhymes: -as
• Hyphenation: gàs

gas m (uncountable)

1. gas (state of matter, petroleum)
2. carbon dioxide (in fizzy drinks)
3. petrol

   Synonym: benzina

4. poison gas

• gas in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Coined by chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont (appearing in his Ortus Medicinae as an invariable noun).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ɡas/, [ɡäs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ɡas/, [ɡäs]

gas n (genitive gasis); third declension

1. (physics) gas (state of matter)

   Synonyms: gasum, gasium

Third-declension noun (neuter, imparisyllabic non-i-stem).

From English gas or Dutch gas.

gas (Jawi spelling ݢس, plural gas-gas, informal 1st possessive gasku, 2nd possessive gasmu, 3rd possessive gasnya)

1. gas.

• “gas” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

• gach

Inherited from Assamese গছ (gos).

gas

1. tree

From Old French gars, nominative singular form of garçon.

gas m (plural gas)

1. (Jersey) chap

From French gaze.

gas m (definite singular gasen, indefinite plural gaser, definite plural gasene)

1. gauze

• gass
• gås

• “gas” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From French gaze.

gas m (definite singular gasen, indefinite plural gasar, definite plural gasane)

1. gauze

• gass
• gås

• “gas” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• gōs

From Proto-West Germanic *gans, from Proto-Germanic *gans, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰh₂éns.

gās f

1. a goose

• Low German: Goos

• ᚵᛆᛋ

From Old Norse gás, from Proto-Germanic *gans.

gās f

1. goose

• Swedish: gås

From Sanskrit.

gas

1. tree

From Dutch gas (“gas”), invented by Jan Baptiste van Helmont, from Latin chaos (“chaos”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡas/

gas m (plural ghës)

1. gas

• IPA^(key): /ɡâːs/

gȃs m (Cyrillic spelling га̑с)

1. (chiefly Bosnia, Serbia or colloquial) gas (state of matter)

   Synonym: (Croatian) plȋn

2. gas (as fuel for combustion engines)
3. (figuratively) acceleration
   • dȁti gȃs - “give gas”: accelerate
4. gas pedal, accelerator

Borrowed from Dutch gas, coined by Belgian chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont. Perhaps inspired by Middle Dutch gheest (Modern Dutch geest (“breath, vapour, spirit”), or from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “chasm, void”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡas/ [ˈɡas]

• Audio (Colombia):

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• Rhymes: -as
• Syllabification: gas

gas m (plural gases)

1. gas (matter between liquid and plasma)
2. gas (an element or compound in such a state)
3. gas (flammable gas used for combustion)
4. (in the plural) gas (waste gases trapped in one's belly)

• gasolina

• “gas”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

• ags, Ags

• IPA^(key): /ɡɑːs/

• audio

  (file)

From Dutch gas.

gas c

1. gas; a state of matter
2. gas; a compound or element in such a state
3. gas; gaseous fuels
4. (plural only: gaser) gas; waste gas
5. gas pedal, acceleration (compare gaspedal (“gas pedal”) and gasa (“accelerate, hit the gas”))

   trampa på gasen

   step on the gas

   full gas

   full throttle

   gasen i botten

   pedal to the metal

From French gaze. Attested since 1670.

gas c

1. (chiefly in compounds) gauze (thin fabric with a loose, open weave)
   1. (medicine) gauze

• gasbinda

• gas in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• gas in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• gas in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• ags, asg

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡas/, [ˈɡas]

Either from English gas, itself a clipping of gasoline, or a clipping of gasolina.

• gaas

gas (Baybayin spelling ᜄᜐ᜔)

1. gasoline

   Synonym: gasolina

2. kerosene; petroleum; gas

   Synonym: petrolyo

Either from Spanish gas or English gas, ultimately from Dutch gas.

gas (Baybayin spelling ᜄᜐ᜔)

1. gaseous substance; vapor; fume

   Synonyms: singaw, asngaw

• IPA^(key): /ɡaːs/

gas

1. Soft mutation of cas.

Borrowed from Dutch gas.

• IPA^(key): /ɡɔs/

gas n (plural gassen)

1. gas

• “gas”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011