Meaning & use

run the gamut

phrase·Advanced

To cover or include the complete range of possibilities within a category.

See it in a sentence

The festival's food stalls run the gamut from spicy street tacos to delicate pastries.

Reactions to the film run the gamut from admiration to outright confusion.

A note on using this word

Gamut originally referred to the full range of musical notes; the idiom now applies broadly to any range.

Words with a similar meaning

cover the range

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

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