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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

goth.

A punk-derived subculture of people who predominantly dress in black, associated with mournful music and attitudes.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɡɒθ/UK/ɡɑθ/Canada, US
  1. A punk-derived subculture of people who predominantly dress in black, associated with mournful music and attitudes.

    uncountable
    Philip has been into goth for many years, haven't you dear?
  2. A style of punk rock influenced by glam rock; gothic rock.

    uncountable
  3. A person who is part of the goth subculture.

    countable
    We saw a solitary goth hanging out on a ledge by the train station.
  4. A member of an alternative subculture based around rock music.

    UK · countable · slang
  5. Rare form of Goth.

    form-of · rare
Where this word comes from

From gothic rock, first used by John Stickney in reference to The Doors in 1967 and used by the late 1970s to describe the musical scene that gave rise to the goth subculture, both from a supposed aesthetic similarity to dark and moody 19th century gothic fiction and earlier gothic art and architecture, from Late Latin gothicus (“Gothic, barbaric”), from Ancient Greek Γοτθικός (Gotthikós), from Ancient Greek Γότθοι (Gótthoi, “Goths”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”), proposed to derive from unattested Gothic *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌰 (*guta).

adj/ɡɒθ/UK/ɡɑθ/Canada, US
  1. Relating to goth music or people.

    With her black clothes and dyed hair, Melanie looked very goth compared to her classmates.
Where this word comes from

From gothic rock, first used by John Stickney in reference to The Doors in 1967 and used by the late 1970s to describe the musical scene that gave rise to the goth subculture, both from a supposed aesthetic similarity to dark and moody 19th century gothic fiction and earlier gothic art and architecture, from Late Latin gothicus (“Gothic, barbaric”), from Ancient Greek Γοτθικός (Gotthikós), from Ancient Greek Γότθοι (Gótthoi, “Goths”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”), proposed to derive from unattested Gothic *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌰 (*guta).

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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.