Word.ws English Dictionary

-gate

/-ɡeɪt/

-gate suffix: combined with a relevant place, person, activity, etc. to form the names of scandals.

Suffix (1)

-gate (proper noun-forming suffix)

  1. Combined with a relevant place, person, activity, etc. to form the names of scandals.
    • "-Ghazi" also shares convenient linguistic parallels with "-gate." They're both scandals that typify their category; they're both location names; they both start with the letter "g"; and they are both short enough to be used in headlines and attached to nouns identifying the scandal.2014 January 15, Alex Seitz-Wald, “How to Name a Scandal: What is a '- Gate' and What Is a '-Ghazi'?”, in James Bennet, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN...
    • Back in college, [Maddi] Filliater said she tweeted at a local sandwich shop about some alleged brown lettuce, and the business responded angrily: Why didn't she bring up the problem in person instead of attacking them on the Internet? Her friends refer to the incident as "LettuceGate."2022 March 30, Tatum Hunter, “How to leave a bad online review without being a jerk”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original...

Noun

-gate (plural -gates)

  1. (informal) A scandal.
    • The George Washington Bridge lane closings started as a "-ghazi" and then became a "-gate." […] The Obama era is chock full of "-ghazis"—Solyndraghazi, ObamaPhoneghazi, NewBlackPanthersghazi, Umbrellaghazi, and of course Benghazi—but few "-gates" (Snowdengate and Websitegate, come to mind).2014 January 15, Alex Seitz-Wald, “How to Name a Scandal: What is a '- Gate' and What Is a '-Ghazi'?”, in James Bennet, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN...

Suffix (2)

-gate (proper noun-forming suffix)

  1. Used to form place names.

Forms of -gate

plural-gates

Origin of -gate

Back-formation from Watergate, an American political scandal from 1972–1974 which led to resignation of president Richard Nixon. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the suffix first appeared in a 1973 article in the National Lampoon magazine which referenced a rumoured "Volgagate". The suffix was promoted by New York Times columnist William Safire, who coined several -gate words beginning in 1974.

From the plural of Old English ġeat (specifically gatu). The reduced pronunciation /-ɡət/ reflects the regular phonological development, as the unstressed suffix did not undergo Middle English open‐syllable lengthening (remaining /-ɡatə/). The full pronunciation /-ɡeɪt/ results from secondary stress or analogy with the independent noun gate.

Words formed from -gate

Questions about -gate

What does -gate mean?
-gate means combined with a relevant place, person, activity, etc. to form the names of scandals.
What part of speech is -gate?
-gate can be a suffix or a noun.
How do you pronounce -gate?
-gate is pronounced /-ɡeɪt/.

Words near -gate in the dictionary

  1. -gamous
  2. -gamy
  3. -gasm
  4. -gasms
  5. -gastria
  6. -gate
  7. -gates
  8. -gatran
  9. -gaze
  10. -geddon
  11. -gem

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -gate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “-gate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-gate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.