Word.ws English Dictionary

Shirtgate

Shirtgate proper noun: a 2014 controversy in which a shirt worn by scientist Matt Taylor at an informal interview associated with the European Space Agency landing of a probe on a comet was branded sexist by some viewers on social media.

Proper noun

Shirtgate

  1. (informal) A 2014 controversy in which a shirt worn by scientist Matt Taylor at an informal interview associated with the European Space Agency landing of a probe on a comet was branded sexist by some viewers on social media.
    • The backfiring of Shirtgate created a temporary pause in the Big Panic, and revealed a basic truth. Most people appeared to have no objection to the kinds of expression that were now being presented as sexist.2016, Jerry Barnett, Porn Panic!: Sex and Censorship in the UK

Origin of Shirtgate

From shirt + -gate.

Questions about Shirtgate

What does Shirtgate mean?
Shirtgate means a 2014 controversy in which a shirt worn by scientist Matt Taylor at an informal interview associated with the European Space Agency landing of a probe on a comet was branded sexist by some viewers on social media.
What part of speech is Shirtgate?
Shirtgate is a proper noun.

Words near Shirtgate in the dictionary

  1. shirtfronted
  2. shirtfronting
  3. shirtfronts
  4. shirtful
  5. shirtfuls
  6. Shirtgate
  7. shirtie
  8. shirtier
  9. shirties
  10. shirtiest
  11. shirtily

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Shirtgate (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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Cite this entry: “Shirtgate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/shirtgate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.