Question 1 · Quick check
gay
CEFRB1
/ɡeɪ/
adjective
Türkçe translations
Translating…
In plain English
- 01
adjective
Feeling or showing happiness and enjoyment.
- 02
adjective
Sexually or romantically attracted to people of the same sex.
Examples
My parents would repudiate my brother if they ever found out he was gay.
So what if I am gay? Is it a crime?
At a glance
Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale
- Senses
- 5
- Parts of speech
- 1
- Citations
- 5
- Synonyms
- 2
Deep Dive
adjective
Extra meaningsA unisex given name from English., A female given name from English, from the word gay (“joyful”); rare today.
Homosexual:
Possessing sexual and/or romantic attraction towards people one perceives to be the same sex or gender as oneself.
More examples
In contextCliff is gay, but his twin brother is straight.
gay and lesbian people
The two failed attempts to receive the necessary access to medicalized transition procedures by the renowned FTM activist Lou Sullivan—a gay man who refused to comply with the imperative that transsexual men must desire women— […]
Related
Quick test
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Nearby
Origin
adjective
From Middle English gay, from Old French gai (“joyful, laughing, merry”), usually thought to be a borrowing of Old Occitan gai (“impetuous, lively”), from Gothic *𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌴𐌹𐍃 (*gaheis, “impetuous”), merging with earlier Old French jai ("merry"; see jay), from Frankish *gāhi; both from Proto-Germanic *ganhuz, *ganhwaz (“sudden”). This is possibly derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- (“to stride, step”), from *ǵʰeh₁- (“to leave”), but Kroonen rejects this derivation and treats the Germanic word as having no known etymology. cognates and sense derivation Cognate with Dutch gauw (“fast, quickly”), Westphalian Low German gau, gai (“fast, quick”), German jäh (“abrupt, sudden”). Anatoly Libe...