Word.ws English Dictionary

gear

UK/ɡɪə/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ɡɪː/

gear noun: equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor. Also the ellipsis of landing gear.

Noun

gear (countable and uncountable, plural gears)

  1. (uncountable) Equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor.
  2. Clothing; garments.
    • Aray thy selfe in her most gorgeous geare1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 26
    • Those Eastern winters, ⁠I can't endure 'em / So every year I pack my gear and come out here till Purim / Rosh Hashanah, I spend in Arizona1990, “(I'm Spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica”, in Tom Lehrer (music), The Remains of Tom Lehrer, performed by Tom Lehrer, published 2000
  3. (obsolete) Goods; property; household items.
    • Homely gear and common ware.1551, Thomas More, “(please specify the Internet Archive page)”, in Raphe Robynson [i.e., Ralph Robinson], transl., A Fruteful, and Pleasaunt Worke of the Best State of a Publyque Weale, and of the...
  4. (countable) A wheel, wheel segment, or bar with grooves (teeth) engraved on the outer circumference, such that two such devices can interlock and convey motion from one to the other.
    • Near-synonyms: (wheel types) cog, cogwheel, gear wheel, gearwheel
  5. (countable) A particular combination or choice of interlocking gears, such that a particular gear ratio is achieved; often selected via a shifter.
    1. (countable) A configuration of the transmission of a motor car so as to achieve a particular ratio of engine to axle torque.
  6. (slang, uncountable) Recreational drugs, including steroids.
    • getting on gear
    • "Have you got any gear? Dominic, have you got any acid?" Emma kept running her hands nervously through her hair. "Not LSD, man; that last trip freaked me out."2003, Marianne Hancock, Looking for Oliver, page 90
  7. (archaic, uncountable) Stuff.
    • When he was digged up, which was in the presence of the Magistracy of the Town, his body was found entire, not at all putrid, no ill smell about him, saving the mustiness of the grave-Clothes, his joynts limber and flexible, as in those that are alive, his skin only flaccid, but a more fresh grown...1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book III, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 113
  8. (obsolete) Business matters; affairs; concern.
    • goe they both together to their geare.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30
  9. (UK, dialectal, obsolete) Anything worthless; nonsense; rubbish.
    • March 29, 1549, Hugh Latimer, the fourth sermon preached before King Edward
      That servant of his that confessed and uttered this gear was an honest man.

Verb

gear (third-person singular simple present gears, present participle gearing, simple past and past participle geared)

  1. (transitive) To provide with gearing; to fit with gears in order to achieve a desired gear ratio.
  2. (intransitive) To be in gear, come into gear.
  3. To dress; to put gear on; to harness.
  4. (usually) To design or devise (something) so as to be suitable (for a particular type of person or a particular purpose).
    • This shop is not really geared towards people of our age.
    • They have geared the hotel mainly at tourists.
  5. To borrow money in order to invest it in assets.

Adjective

gear (comparative more gear, superlative most gear)

  1. (chiefly Liverpool) great or fantastic

Proper noun capitalized: Gear

Gear

  1. A surname.

Also used as

gear is also the ellipsis of landing gear.

gear meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

gear in Hindi

गियर

gear in Tamil

கியர்

gear in Marathi

गिअर

gear in Urdu

گیئر
More languagesFewer languages
gear in Bengali
গিয়ার
gear in Telugu
గేర్
gear in Malayalam
ഗിയർ
gear in Kannada
ಗೇರ್
gear in Punjabi
ਗਿਅਰ, ਗੇਅਰ, ਗਿਯਰ
gear in Gujarati
ગિયર
gear in Odia
ଗିଯ଼ର
gear in Nepali
गियर
gear in Tagalog
ngiplong, kambiyo
gear in Malay
gear
gear in Indonesian
roda gigi

Examples of gear in a sentence

  • The distance between the lowest and next gear on my bicycle is annoying.
  • The nylon gears kept breaking, so we went to stainless steel.
  • When driving up a hill, choose a lower gear so you don't lug the engine.

All 40 example sentences with gear

Synonyms of gear

Forms of gear

Noun
pluralgears
Verb
third-person singular presentgears
present participlegearing
past participlegeared
pastgeared
Adjective
comparativemore gear
superlativemost gear

Past tense of gear: geared

Plural of gear: gears

Origin of gear

From Middle English gere, a borrowing from Old Norse gervi, from Proto-Germanic *garwijaną (“to prepare”). See also adjective yare, yar from the same root via Old English.

Words formed from gear

Phrases with gear

82 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with gear

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about gear

What does gear mean?
Gear means equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor.
What is gear in Hindi?
Gear in Hindi is गियर. See Gear meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is gear?
Gear can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce gear?
Gear is pronounced /ɡɪə/ (UK).
What is the plural of gear?
The plural of gear is gears.

Words near gear in the dictionary

  1. geans
  2. geanticlinal
  3. geanticlinals
  4. geanticline
  5. geanticlines
  6. gear
  7. gear acquisition syndrome
  8. gear case
  9. gear cases
  10. gear change
  11. gear changes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gear (page history and authors); Gear (page history and authors); gear (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gear (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gear (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gear (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gear (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gear (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gear (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gear (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gear (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gear (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gear (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gear (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: En-au-gear.ogg.

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