Word.ws English Dictionary

ganger

Syllables: gang·er/ˈɡæŋə/US/ˈɡæŋɚ/

ganger noun: one who or that which walks or goes; a goer; a walker.

Noun

ganger (plural gangers)

  1. (Scotland) One who or that which walks or goes; a goer; a walker.
  2. A horse that goes quickly.
  3. One who oversees a gang of workmen.
    • I was sent out to a little village called Wee-Wee-Rup where the ganger, Dinny Kelly, gave me an order on the store to get a tent and blankets[.]1933, Frank Clune, Try Anything Once, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 28
    • Primary responsibility must rest with a ganger. He failed to appreciate the danger of disturbing the track, short of ballast, on a very hot day.1950 March, “Notes and News: Merstham Quarry Derailment”, in Railway Magazine, page 210
  4. (coal mining) One who is employed in conveying the coal through the gangways.
  5. A length of chain, one end of which is fastened to an anchor when let go, when the other end is fastened to a hawser.

Proper noun capitalized: Ganger

Ganger (plural Gangers)

  1. A surname.

Forms of ganger

Noun
pluralgangers
Proper noun
pluralGangers

Origin of ganger

From Middle English ganger, from Old English gangere (“a ganger, footman”), equivalent to gang + -er. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gunger, West Frisian gonger, Dutch ganger, German Gänger, Danish gjænger, ganger, Swedish gängare, Icelandic gangari.

Words that rhyme with ganger

Questions about ganger

What does ganger mean?
Ganger means one who or that which walks or goes; a goer; a walker.
What part of speech is ganger?
Ganger can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce ganger?
Ganger is pronounced /ˈɡæŋə/ (UK).
What is the plural of ganger?
The plural of ganger is gangers.

Words near ganger in the dictionary

  1. Gangean
  2. ganged
  3. ganged up
  4. ganged up on
  5. Gangehi
  6. ganger
  7. gangerel
  8. gangerels
  9. gangers
  10. Ganges
  11. Ganges River dolphin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ganger (page history and authors); Ganger (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ganger.wav.

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