In modern western music, we sing the major scale to the syllables do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, and back to do.

That system is an updated version of a medieval one that we attribute to the Italian musician Guido of Arezzo. His scale went ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, using syllables from a hymn called "Ut queant laxis" ("With Loosened Voices"). That hymn went like this:

Ut queant laxis
resonare fibris
Mira gestorum
famuli tuorum,
Solve polluti
labii reatum,
Sancte Iohannes.

(In English: "So that your servants may, with loosened voices, resound the wonders of your deeds, clean the guilt from our stained lips, O Saint John.")

As you can see, ut in Latin kind of means "so that," or "as." In a musical context, ut means "the lowest note." Another way of referring to the lowest note in the medieval musical scale is to call it G, from the Greek letter "gamma." Slap the two together and you get the Latin phrase gamma ut, which contracts into "gamut."

This "gamut" has been around in English since the 1400s. It started out meaning "the lowest note in a musical scale," and later, "all the notes in a musical scale."

Over time, it grew to mean "the full range of anything," rather than just the range of musical notes. So today, if you say that something runs the gamut from this to that, you mean it runs the complete, orderly range of something.

Part of speech:

Noun: "the gamut of emotions," "the gamut of flavors," "the gamut of conversational topics."

Other forms: 

None are common.

how to use it:

Pick the common, formal word "gamut" to describe a broad range of things when you want to compare them to the orderly arrangement of musical notes.

Say that something (or someone) runs the gamut of something, often from one thing to another. "These poems run the gamut of human emotion." "They run the gamut of emotion, from ecstasy to despair."

examples:

"Techniques for approaching noisy neighbors run the gamut from measured letters to management interventions." 
— Bob Morris, New York Times, 9 April 2006

"There is much malaria, some typhoid, and a few cases of enteric fever. This is the gamut of our sickness." 
— J. Angus Hamilton, The Siege of Mafeking, 1900

has this page helped you understand "gamut"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "gamut" without saying "range" or "continuum."

try it out:

The poet Carolyn D. Wright wrote:

"I believe words are golden as goodness is golden. Even the humble word brush gives off a scratch of light. There is not much poetry from which I feel barred, whether it is arcane or open in the extreme. I attempt to run the gamut because I am pulled by the extremes."

In other words, she enjoys all kinds of poetry: the extremely easy-to-understand kind, the extremely hard-to-understand kind, and everything in between. The gamut.

With that in mind as an example, talk about something you enjoy that runs the gamut from a certain quality to another. It might be a cuisine, like French cooking; a pursuit, like hiking; or a genre of music or literature, like power metal or science fiction.

If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.)

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "It Sounds Wiser in Latin."

Longtime readers will recognize this game. It's back, with fresh new (okay, mostly ancient) Latin idioms!

Try matching a handful of Latin phrases to their English translations. If you need some clues, I'll provide them in the form of definitions of related English words. For example, the clue "Something anguine reminds you of a snake" could help you determine that "Latet anguis in herba" means "A snake hides in the grass."

You can see the answers by scrolling to the bottom of the issue. 

Try these today:

1. Bene diagnoscitur, bene curatur.
2. Lumen soli mutuum das.
3. Mala herba cito crescit.
4. Mali principii malus finis.
5. Mendacem memorem esse oportet.

A. A bad beginning makes a bad ending.
B. A disease known is half cured.
C. A liar should have a good memory.
D. Bad weeds grow fast.
E. You lend light to the sun. (You're overexplaining.)

To peek at the clues, follow the links:

   1. "Sinecure" literally means...
   2. Something luminous is...
   3. Someone mendacious is...

review this word:

1. A near opposite of GAMUT is

A. LARGE SCALE.
B. LIMITED SCOPE.
C. RIGID VIEWPOINT.

2. In Endgame, Frank Brady wrote: "Regina's _____ led her to a gamut of jobs."

A. inexperience
B. highly specialized degree
C. flexibility and desperation

Answers to the review questions: 1. B 2. C 1. Bene diagnoscitur, bene curatur. = A disease known is half cured. 2. Lumen soli mutuum das. = You lend light to the sun. (You're overexplaining.) 3. Mala herba cito crescit. = Bad weeds grow fast. 4. Mali principii malus finis. = A bad beginning makes a bad ending. 5. Mendacem memorem esse oportet. =  A liar should have a good memory.

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.