gulf
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
guhlfIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡʌlf
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
geography
An arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land; larger than a bay
geography
A portion of an ocean or sea extending into the land; a partially landlocked sea
figurative
A wide interval or gap; a separating space.
figurative
A difference, especially a large difference, between groups.
A hollow place in the earth; an abyss; a deep chasm or basin.
That which swallows irretrievably; a whirlpool; a sucking eddy.
verb
transitive
To engulf.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land; larger than a bay
Used this way, gulf is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use gulf
- “He felt a gulf between himself and his former friends.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A seashore of the Gulf of Mexico.
Arm of the Indian Ocean at the entrance to the Red Sea.
A gulf of the Aegean on the southeastern coast of Greece.
A northeastern arm of the Red Sea.
A gulf of the Pacific Ocean between the Alaska Peninsula and the Alexander Archipelago.
A gulf of the Mediterranean Sea in southwestern Turkey.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.