Running the gamut

Posted by Bob on November 02, 2003

In Reply to: Running the gamut posted by Bruce Kahl on November 01, 2003

: : what does running the gamut mean?

: It means the entirety--a sense of completeness.
: Someone will use that phrase to describe a state of wholeness as in "The people who frequent the Phrasefinder forum run a geographic gamut with people from almost all continents participating".
: Gamut was used by the ancient inhabitants of Rome in a musical sense to desribe a series of notes. I think the original word was "gamus" or "gamuae". I am not 100% on that.

Printing uses the term, too. The gamut is a map that shows all the colors possible with the inks being used, and, in electronic form, all the colors possible for a monitor to show. Something, for example, could be printed in Day-Glo flourescent colors, but you couldn't represent that on your computer monitor, as those colors are outside the gamut.

• Running the gamut - a little more James Briggs 02/November/03