# gang

/ˈɡæŋ/ (US) · /ɡˈæŋ/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/gang
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. group of friends

noun · CEFR A2 · Informal

a group of friends who spend a lot of time together.

For teachers: an informal social group of friends or associates.

- The whole gang is coming over to my house to watch the game tonight.
- I still meet up with the old gang from university at least once a year to catch up on everyone's lives.

### 2. criminal group

noun · CEFR B1

a group of criminals who work together to break the law.

For teachers: an organised group of individuals who engage in illegal or antisocial activities, often claiming a specific territory.

- The police are trying to stop the local gang from selling drugs in the park.
- The documentary explores how street gangs establish influence in urban areas through a combination of intimidation and community support.

### 3. work crew

noun · CEFR B2

a group of workers who do a job together under a leader.

For teachers: a squad of labourers or technicians working together on a specific task or project.

- A gang of road workers arrived early this morning to fix the potholes.
- The foreman managed a gang of twenty railway engineers who were responsible for maintaining the tracks through the mountain pass.

### 4. technical set

noun · CEFR C1 · Technical

a set of similar tools or electrical parts that work together.

For teachers: a combination of similar mechanical tools or electrical components arranged to operate as a single unit.

- The electrician installed a three-gang switch to control all the lights in the hall.
- The machinery utilised a gang of saws to cut multiple timber planks simultaneously, significantly increasing the factory's hourly output.

### 5. to go

verb · CEFR C2 · Dialect · Archaic

an old or regional way to say 'to go' or 'to walk'.

For teachers: to go, walk, or proceed; primarily found in Northern English and Scots varieties.

- Things might gang wrong if we don't follow the plan carefully.
- The old ballad tells of a young man who must gang away to the wars, leaving his true love behind in the glen.

### 6. to group together

verb · CEFR C1 · Technical

to connect or group things together so they work as one unit.

For teachers: to arrange or connect multiple components, such as electrical switches or mechanical parts, to act in concert.

- You can gang these two controllers together to manage the entire system from one spot.
- The engineers decided to gang the capacitors in parallel to achieve the required total capacitance for the high-voltage circuit.

## Examples

- The whole gang is coming over for dinner tonight.
- The local road crew worked as a gang to repair the highway before the winter storms arrived.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.