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Aug 21, 2026
This week’s theme
Words that say it twice

This week’s words
circumambient
hapchance
concomitance
overplus
gangway

gangway
No way? Two ways.
Photo: Chi-Hung Lin / Wikimedia

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gangway

PRONUNCIATION:
(GANG-way)

MEANING:
noun:A passageway, especially a narrow or temporary walkway, such as a gangplank, a jet bridge, or an aisle between rows of seats
interj.:Used to tell people to clear the way.

ETYMOLOGY:
From gang (way or passage) + way. Earliest documented use: 1688.

NOTES:
Gang originally meant way or passage, so gangway literally says way twice. No way! Yes way! Way way! It’s the perfect word to shout when you need people to get out of your way way, which is exactly why it doubles as a interjection when barging through a crowd.

USAGE:
“For investors, says James Sullivan of JPMorgan Chase, a bank, ‘there is still time to board.’ Not all gangways are created equal, however. Investors are souring on Chinese shipbuilders.”
Trade Winds; The Economist (London, UK); May 3, 2025.

See more usage examples of gangway in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals. -Dallas Pratt, psychiatrist (21 Aug 1914-1994)

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