Word.ws English Dictionary

gaol

/d͡ʒeɪl/

gaol noun: dated spelling of jail.

gaol: dated spelling of jail
Image: Bidgee, CC BY-SA 2.5 au, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

gaol (countable and uncountable, plural gaols)

  1. (UK) Dated spelling of jail.
    • There's every Staffordshire crime-piece ever made in this cabinet, and that's unique. The Van Hoyer Museum in New York hasn't that very rare second version of Maria Marten's Red Barn over there, nor the little Frederick George Manning – he was the criminal Dickens saw hanged on the roof of the gaol...1963, Margery Allingham, “Miss Thyrza’s Chair”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 42
    • There was a simple reason for Sirius' complete absence from Harry's life until then – Sirius had been in Azkaban, the terrifying wizard gaol guarded by creatures called Dementors, […]2000 July 8, J. K. Rowling [pseudonym; Joanne Rowling], “The Scar”, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter; 4), London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 26

Verb

gaol (third-person singular simple present gaols, present participle gaoling, simple past and past participle gaoled)

  1. (UK) Dated spelling of jail.

gaol meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

gaol in Tamil

காவற்கூடம், சிறை, சிறைச்சாலை

gaol in Urdu

gaol
قیدخانہ qaidxāna, کاراگار kārāgār

gaol in Malayalam

ജയിൽ, തടവറ, തടവ്

gaol in Kannada

ಸೆರೆಮನೆ, ಕಾರಾಗೃಹ, ಜೈಲು, ಬಂದೀಖಾನೆ, ಸೆರೆ, ಬಂಧನ

Forms of gaol

Noun
pluralgaols
Verb
third-person singular presentgaols
present participlegaoling
past participlegaoled
pastgaoled

Plural of gaol: gaols

Origin of gaol

From Middle English gayole, gaiol, gaylle, gaille, gayle, gaile, via Old French gaiole, gayolle, gaole, from Medieval Latin gabiola, for Late Latin caveola, a diminutive of Latin cavea (“cavity, coop, cage”). See also cage.

Words formed from gaol

Words that rhyme with gaol

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gaol

What does gaol mean?
Gaol means dated spelling of jail.
What is gaol in Tamil?
Gaol in Tamil is காவற்கூடம், சிறை, சிறைச்சாலை. See Gaol meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is gaol?
Gaol can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce gaol?
Gaol is pronounced /d͡ʒeɪl/.
What is the plural of gaol?
The plural of gaol is gaols.

Words near gaol in the dictionary

  1. Gaodeng
  2. Gaogouli
  3. gaohu
  4. gaohus
  5. gaokao
  6. gaol
  7. gaol fever
  8. gaol-bird
  9. gaol-birds
  10. gaolable
  11. gaolbait

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gaol (page history and authors); gaol (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); قیدخانہ (Urdu) (page history and authors); gaol (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gaol (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:

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

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