gamut
- 01 C2 Proficiency
the full set of colours that a computer screen or printer can show.
the entire range of colours that can be represented or reproduced by a specific device or within a given colour space.
Simple“This professional monitor has a wide gamut, so the colours look very realistic.”
In context“Photographers often prefer printers with an expanded gamut to ensure that vibrant landscapes are reproduced with high fidelity.”
UsageUsually functions as a countable noun in technical contexts.
Synonymscolour spacepalette - 02 C2 Proficiency
the full set of notes in a musical scale.
the full range of notes which a voice or instrument can produce, or the entire series of recognised notes in medieval music.
Simple“The singer's voice was impressive, reaching every note in the musical gamut.”
In context“The composition requires the soloist to explore the full gamut of the instrument, including the rarely used lower register.”
Teacher's tipThis is the original historical meaning of the word, though the 'range of emotions' sense is now much more common.
“Transfer deadline day may be “exciting for everyone”, as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall puts it, but his experience of that transfer deadline day at Everton hauled him through the same gamut of emotions as every Evertonian.”
“The models run the gamut, from former “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestants to cosplayers .”
1520s, original sense “lowest note of musical scale”, contraction of Medieval Latin gamma ut, from gamma (“Greek letter, corresponding to the musical note G”) + ut (“first solfège syllable, now replaced by do”). In modern terms, “G do” – the first note of the G scale. Meaning later extended to mean all the notes of a scale, and then more generally any complete range.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.