Have you seen or heard the word gig used before? Click here to listen to how it pronounced.

I use this word relatively frequently to talk about work, but there are a number of meanings for this word, not just about work, and I thought it would be interesting to look at all of those today.

The most common way I use, and hear this word gig used, is to describe a short-term job. The word gig is most often used by entertainers (i.e. musicians and actors) to describe their work, as they often take jobs that only last a short time. Here is how to use the word gig with this definition.

Example:
Sorry I can’t help you move this weekend, I have a gig I have to be at.
or
“How do you like your new job?” “It’s a good gig.”

The word gig has a few other meanings as well, which you can see below.

a) a pronged spear for catching fish

 b) a type of horse drawn carriage that has 2 wheels

c) a slim, light-weigh boat that is used in rowing

Here is how to use gig with these definitions.

Examples:
A) The fisherman grabbed his gig and threw it into the water to spear the fish.
B) We went for a ride in the country in an old fashion gig drawn by horses.
C) The rowing team went out to practice in their new gig.

Also, you can find ‘gig’ in a few other English words that have completely different meanings, for example:

whirligig – This is an object that spins or whirls around and looks like this:

gigabyte – This is a unit of computer memory that is equal to one billion bytes.

Although ‘gig’ is not a common everyday word in English, it is one that comes up every once in a while, especially when talking about jobs. Hopefully you’ll get the chance to use this word sometime soon, or maybe you’ll now recognize it the next time you hear it.