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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

gaslight.

A lamp which operates by burning piped illuminating gas (or town gas).

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡæslaɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡæsˌlaɪt/General-American
  1. A lamp which operates by burning piped illuminating gas (or town gas).

    countable · historical · uncountable
  2. The light produced by the burning gas in such a lamp.

    historical · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From gas (“flammable gaseous hydrocarbon or hydrocarbon mixture used as a fuel”) + light.

verb/ˈɡæslaɪt/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɡæsˌlaɪt/General-American
  1. To manipulate someone such that they doubt their own memory, perceptions of reality, or sanity, typically for malevolent reasons.

    formal · historical · transitive
  2. To deceive, trick, or lie to.

    broadly · historical · informal · proscribed · transitive
Where this word comes from

From the 1938 stage play Gas Light by the English playwright and novelist Patrick Hamilton (1904–1962), and its 1940 and 1944 film adaptations, in which a husband attempts to convince his wife and others that she is insane by manipulating small elements of their environment. For more details, see also Gaslighting § Etymology on Wikipedia.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.