bang

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: băng; IPA^(key): /bæŋ(ɡ)/
• (Ireland) IPA^(key): /baŋ/
  • (Dublin) IPA^(key): /bæn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋ
• Homophone: bhang

From Middle English *bangen, from Old English *bangian or borrowed from Old Norse banga (“to pound, hammer”); both from Proto-Germanic *bangōną (“to beat, pound”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰen- (“to beat, hit, injure”). Cognate with Scots bang, bung (“to strike, bang, hurl, thrash, offend”), Icelandic banga (“to pound, hammer”), Old Swedish bånga ("to hammer"; whence modern Swedish banka (“to knock, pound, bang”)), Danish banke (“to beat”), bengel (“club”), Low German bangen, bangeln (“to strike, beat”), West Frisian bingel, bongel, Dutch bengel (“bell; rascal”), German Bengel (“club”), bungen (“to throb, pulsate”).

In the sense of a fringe of hair, from bang off.

In the sense of abrupt left turn, from Boston left and associated risk of a crash.

• bangue (obsolete)

bang (plural bangs)

1. A sudden percussive noise.

   Synonyms: boom, report; see also Thesaurus:bang

   When he struck it with a hammer, there was a loud bang.

   • 1992, Bob Magor, Blood on the Board, page 39:

     A fiendish yell then followed / Ev'ry salvo's 'bang' and 'bloop'.

2. A strike upon an object causing such a noise.
3. An explosion.
4. (US, archaic) Synonym of bangs: hair hanging over the forehead, especially a hairstyle with such hair cut straight across.

   Tiffany has long hair and bangs.

   • 1880, William Dean Howells, The Undiscovered Country:

     his hair cut in front like a young lady's bang

   • 1902, Barbara Baynton, Squeaker's Mate; reprinted in Carmel Bird, editor, The Penguin Century of Australian Stories, 2000, →ISBN:

     She was not much to look at. Her red hair hung in an uncurled bang over her forehead

5. (chiefly US) The symbol !, known as an exclamation point.

   An e-mail address with an ! is called a bang path.

   • 1980, C.W. Wilkinson, Peter H. Clarke, Dorothy C.M. Wilkinson, Communicating through Letters and Reports, 7th edition, page 651:

     Incidentally, a useful abbreviation for "Exclamation point" is "Bang."

6. (mathematics) A factorial, in mathematics, because the factorial of n is often written as n!
7. (vulgar, slang) An act of sexual intercourse.
8. An offbeat figure typical of reggae songs and played on guitar and piano.
9. (slang, mining) An explosive product.

   Load the bang into the hole.

10. (slang) An injection, a shot (of a narcotic drug). [from 20th c.]
    • 1951 December 20, William S. Burroughs, “To Allen Ginsberg”, in Oliver Harris, editor, The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945–1959, New York: Penguin, published 1993, →ISBN, page 98:

      Of course, I take a bang or some mud in coffee now and then, and I pick up on gage right smart.

    • 1952 January 19, William S. Burroughs, “To Allen Ginsberg”, in Oliver Harris, editor, The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945–1959, New York: Penguin, published 1993, →ISBN, page 101:

      As for myself, I take a bang now and then—I know plenty of croakers—but I really couldn't keep up a habit without a lot of running around and bother.

11. (slang, US, Boston area) An abrupt left turn.
12. (Ireland, colloquial, slang) strong smell (of)

    There was a bang of onions off his breath.

13. (slang) A thrill.
    • 1951 July 16, J[erome] D[avid] Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, page 38:

      I hate the movies like poison, but I get a bang imitating them.

    • 1993, Douglas Woolf, Sandra Braman, Hypocritic Days & Other Tales, page 40:

      "We all know you give great parties, Mr. Lippincott."
      "It gives me a bang, even a bigger bang than this," Mr. Lippincott said, indicating his drink and then finishing it.

    • 2000, James Hadley Chase, Make the Corpse Walk, page 31:

      Yes, he got a bang out of cheating Rollo.

• strike, blow
• explosion
• (the symbol !): exclamation point, exclamation mark, pling

• (antonym(s) of “abrupt left turn”): hang

bang (third-person singular simple present bangs, present participle banging, simple past and past participle banged)

1. (intransitive) To make sudden loud noises, and often repeatedly, especially by exploding or hitting something.

   The fireworks banged away all through the night.

   Stop banging on the door. I heard you the first time!

   My head was banging after drinking all night at the concert.

2. (ambitransitive) To hit hard.

   He banged the door shut.

   David and Mary banged into each other.

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     The desperate tempest hath so banged the Turks.

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “3/19/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

     Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.

3. (slang, ambitransitive, vulgar) To engage in sexual intercourse.

   Synonyms: nail, do it, have sex; see also Thesaurus:copulate, Thesaurus:copulate with

   We can hear the couple banging upstairs.

   • 1996, Cameron Crowe, Jerry Maguire, spoken by Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr), Culver City, Calif.: TriStar Pictures; distributed by Columbia TriStar Home Video, published 1997, →ISBN:

     It's also my job to take care of the skanks on the road that you bang.

   • 1972, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather:

     Moe Greene: He was banging cocktail waitresses two at a time!

4. (with "in") To hammer or to hit anything hard.

   Hold the picture while I bang in this nail.

5. (transitive) To cut squarely across, as the tail of a horse, or a person's forelock; to cut (the hair).
   • c. 1883, Frank Hamilton Cushing, Becomin a Zuni:

     His hair banged even with his eyebrows.

6. (transitive, slang, drugs) To inject intravenously.

   Do you smoke meth? No, I bang it.

7. (finance, transitive, dated) To depress the prices in (a market).
   • 1821, Bank of England, The Bank - The Stock Exchange - The Bankers ..., page 64:

     This accompt has been made to appear a bull accompt, i.e. that the bulls cannot take their stock. The fact is the reverse; it is a bear accompt, but the bears, unable to deliver their stock, have conjointly banged the market, and pocketed the tickets, to defeat the rise and loss that would have ensued to them by their buying on a rising price on the accompt day […]

   • 1902, Truth, volume 50, page 1138:

     […] the London "Bears" have promptly banged the market again […]

8. (slang, transitive, obsolete) To excel or surpass.
9. (intransitive, stative, slang) To be excellent; to be banging

   Synonyms: eat, rule, rock, slap; see also Thesaurus:excel

   This song bangs!

10. (Nigeria, slang) To fail, especially an exam; to flunk.
11. (New England, slang, intransitive) To make a turn in a vehicle; to hang a right, left, or uey.

    Bang a right at the next stoplight.

12. (US, slang) Shortened form of gangbang, to participate in street gang criminal activity.

    You know I still bang.

bang (comparative more bang, superlative most bang)

1. Right, directly.

   The passenger door was bang against the garage wall.

   • 2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     After yet another missed penalty by Kvirikashvili from bang in front of the posts, England scored again, centre Tuilagi flying into the line and touching down under the bar.

2. Precisely.

   He arrived bang on time.

3. With a sudden impact.

   Distracted, he ran bang into the opening door.

bang

1. A sudden percussive sound, such as made by the firing of a gun, slamming of a door, etc.

   He pointed his finger at her like a gun and said, “Bang!”

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     Bang! Away he goes with a mighty bound. Leo has missed him. Bang! right under him again. Now for a shot. I must have one, though he is going like an arrow, and a hundred yards away and more.

   • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 84:

     “Just like parade it had been a minute before then stumble, bang, swish! Wiped out!” he said.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 215:

     Serve him right. Transgression—punishment—bang! Pitiless, pitiless.

   • 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 17:

     We help to kill the bloody bandits. Bang, bang, bang.

• (verb): banger, bit banging, gangbang, bang about, bang around, bang away, bang down the door, bang on the door, bang one's head against a brick wall, bang out, bang some heads together, bang the door down, gang-bang, head bang, bang like a shithouse door, bang like a dunny door, bang like a dunny door in a gale, bang a uey, bang for one's buck, bang into
• (noun): bang bang chicken, bang path, bang for the buck, bang maid, bang snap, bang stick, bang straw / bang-straw, bang tail / bang-tail, bang zone, bang-up cove, big bang / Big Bang, flash-bang, gang bang, go out with a bang, interrobang, sonic bang, with a bang
• (adverb): bang on, bang out of order, bang to rights, bang up / bang-up
• (interjection): bang-bang, slap bang / slap-bang, smack bang, tap, rack, bang, the whole bang shoot, whiz-bang / whizz-bang / whizbang

bang (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of bhang (“cannabis”).

• PC bang

• BGAN

Borrowed from Malay bang, from Persian بانگ (bâng, “voice, sound, noise, cry”), from Middle Persian 𐭥𐭠𐭭𐭢 (ʿʾng /⁠vāng⁠/).

• IPA^(key): /baŋ/

bang

1. adhan (islamic call to prayer)

From Dutch bang (“afraid”), from Middle Dutch banghe.

• IPA^(key): /baŋ/

• Audio:

  (file)

bang (attributive bange, comparative banger, superlative bangste)

1. afraid

From English bank.

bang

1. A bank
   • 2008, Miriam Meyerhoff, Social lives in language--sociolinguistics and multilingual speech‎^[2], →ISBN, page 344:

     Bang i wantem mi faen from mi ovaspen.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

From English bang.

bang

1. accident

• aksidong

Onomatopoeic.

bang

1. the sound of an explosion or a gun

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:bang.

• IPA^(key): /bɑŋ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bang
• Rhymes: -ɑŋ

From Middle Dutch banghe, from be- + anghe. The latter word is an adverbial form of enge (“narrow, confined”), compare angst (“fear”). See also Middle Low German bange, Middle High German bange, German bang, West Frisian bang.

bang (comparative banger, superlative bangst)

1. scared, frightened

   Wees maar niet bang.

   Please don't be afraid.

   Ik ben bang voor het donker!

   I am scared of the dark!

2. fearful
3. anxious

• The adjective is accompanied with zijn (to be); for example: Ik ben bang "I am afraid". Usage with hebben (to have) also occurs - for example: Ik heb bang - but is generally proscribed as a contamination with ik heb angst.
• In Southern Dutch, the phrase schrik hebben is used as well besides bang zijn.

Declension of bang
uninflected	bang
inflected	bange
comparative	banger
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		bang	banger	het bangst het bangste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	bange	bangere	bangste
	n. sing.	bang	banger	bangste
	plural	bange	bangere	bangste
definite		bange	bangere	bangste
partitive		bangs	bangers	—

• bevreesd, angstig, schrikachtig, vruchtig, verschrikt

• Afrikaans: bang
• Berbice Creole Dutch: banggi
• Jersey Dutch: bāng
• Negerhollands: bang, baṅ

• schrikken

Of onomatopoeic origin, possibly from English bang.

bang m (plural bangen, diminutive bangetje n)

1. a sharp, percussive sound, like the sound of an explosion or gun; bang

• IPA^(key): /bɑ̃ɡ/

• Audio:

  (file)

bang

1. bang

bang m (plural bangs)

1. sonic boom
2. bong (marijuana pipe)

• “bang”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• bange (both are roughly equally common)

Originally an adverb, cf. mir ist bange. From Middle High German bange, an enlargement (with the prefix be-) of ange, Old High German ango (“narrowly, anxiously”), an adverb of engi (“narrow”), from Proto-Germanic *anguz.

• IPA^(key): /baŋ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aŋ

bang (strong nominative masculine singular banger, comparative banger or bänger, superlative am bangsten or am bängsten)

1. scared, frightened, afraid, fearful

   Synonym: ängstlich

   • 1851, Heinrich Heine, “Lazarus”, in Romanzero‎^[3], Hamburg: Hoffmann und Campe:

     Und ist man tot, so muß man lang / Im Grabe liegen; ich bin bang, / Ja, ich bin bang, das Auferstehen / Wird nicht so schnell von Statten gehen.

     And when one is dead, one must lie long in the grave; I'm afraid / Yes, I'm afraid, the resurrection / Won't happen so quickly.

   • 2001, Winfried Georg Sebald, Austerlitz, Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag, →ISBN, page 376:

     […] wenn sie, was mich stets in eine bange Stimmung versetzte, nicht in Paris war, machte ich mich regelmäßig auf, die Randbezirke der Stadt zu erkunden […]

     when she, which always placed me into a state of dread, wasn’t in Paris, I regularly set off to reconnoitre the outlying districts of the city […]

   • 1919, Aleksey Remizov, translated by Arthur Luther, Legenden und Geschichten‎^[4] (fiction), Leipzig: Kurt Wolff, →ISBN:

     Trübe Tage wechselten mit bangen Nächten. Das Leben war schwer.

     Dismal days turned into fearful nights. Life was difficult.

• angst und bang

• “bang” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “bang” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon

Inherited from Old Norse [Term?].

• IPA^(key): /pauŋk/
• Rhymes: -aŋ
• Rhymes: -auŋk
• Rhymes: -aŋː

bang n (genitive singular bangs, no plural)

1. pounding, hammering, banging

• banga

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈbaŋ/ [ˈbaŋ]
• Rhymes: -aŋ
• Syllabification: bang
• Homophone: bank

Clipping of abang (“brother”).

bang

1. Title or term of address for brother

   Bang Erwin, mau ke mana? ― Brother Erwin, where are you going?

Onomatopoeic

bang

1. a sudden percussive noise

From Malay bang, from Persian بانگ (bâng, “voice, sound, noise, cry”), from Middle Persian 𐭥𐭠𐭭𐭢 (ʿʾng /⁠vāng⁠/).^[1]

bang (plural bang-bang)

1. (obsolete) adhan

   Synonym: azan

• “bang” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

bang m (genitive singular banga, nominative plural banganna)

1. (swimming) stroke, single effort

   Synonyms: béim, buille, oscar

2. effort, (vigorous) movement

From Old Irish bang (“ban, interdict”).

bang f (genitive singular bainge, nominative plural banga)

1. ban, interdict, taboo
2. restraint

bang m (genitive singular baing, nominative plural baing)

1. alternative form of banc (“bank”)

• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959) “bang”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “bang”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 bang”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• “stroke”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2025

bang

1. romanization of ꦧꦁ

From Classical Persian بانگ (“voice, sound, noise, cry”).

bang

1. adhan

From Dutch band.

bang

1. tire

From Dutch bank.

bang

1. bank

bang

1. track, path

• Arief, Aburaerah (1995) Kamus Makassar–Indonesia, Ujung Pandang: Yayaan Perguruan Islam Kapita, page 31

• IPA^(key): /baŋ/
• Rhymes: -baŋ, -aŋ

From Persian بانگ (“voice, sound, noise, cry”).

bang (Jawi spelling بڠ, plural bang-bang)

1. adhan

   Synonym: azan

• Indonesian: bang
• → Acehnese: bang
• → Maranao: bang
• → Tausug: bāng

Clipping of abang (“brother”).

bang (Jawi spelling بڠ, plural bang-bang)

1. (colloquial) brother (older male sibling)

   Synonyms: abang (bung), kakak, engko, nana, uda

• “bang” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

bang

1. nonstandard spelling of bāng
2. nonstandard spelling of bǎng
3. nonstandard spelling of bàng

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

Borrowed from Malay bang, from Persian بانگ (bâng, “voice, sound, noise, cry”), from Middle Persian 𐭥𐭠𐭭𐭢 (ʿʾng /⁠vāng⁠/). Compare Tausug bāng.

bang

1. (Islam) adhan, call to prayer

• A Maranao Dictionary, by Howard P. McKaughan and Batua A. Macaraya

• IPA^(key): /bɑːŋɡ/
• Rhymes: -ɑːŋɡ

bang ?

1. a shout.

Onomatopoeic or unknown origin.

bang n (genitive bangs, plural bǫng)

1. pounding, hammering, banging

• banga

• Zoëga, Geir T. (1910) “bang”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press; also available at the Internet Archive

Compare German bang, Dutch bang.

bang

1. afraid, scared, fearful
2. timid
3. uneasy

Onomatopoeic.

bang

1. bang

From Middle Low German bange, formed from be- + enge (from Old Saxon engi, angi (“narrow”)). Related to English angst and anger.

• Audio:

  (file)

bang

1. scared, anxious

bang c

1. A sudden percussive noise

• (Sinūgan Parianun) IPA^(key): /baŋ/ [ˈbaŋ]
• Rhymes: -aŋ
• Syllabification: bang

bang (Sulat Sūg spelling بَڠْ)

1. if

   Bang siya diꞌ magad lumanjal na kita.

   If he won’t go with us we’d better proceed.

bang (Sulat Sūg spelling بَڠْ)

1. when; at (or as soon as) that time that; if

   Bang siya mari patagara.

   When she comes let her wait (for me).

From Proto-Tai *C̥.baːŋᴬ (“thin (not thick)”). Cognate with Lao ບາງ (bāng), Shan မၢင် (mǎang) or ဝၢင် (wǎang), Tai Nüa ᥛᥣᥒ (maang), Ahom 𑜈𑜂𑜫 (baṅ), Zhuang mbang. Compare Sui qbaangl, Southern Kam mangl, Thai บาง (baang) and Proto-Be *viaŋᴬ¹ (“thin (not thick)”) (> ɓiaŋ¹~viaŋ¹ across the different lects).

• (Thạch An – Tràng Định) IPA^(key): [ɓaːŋ˧˥]
• (Trùng Khánh) IPA^(key): [ɓaːŋ˦]

bang

1. thin

   slửa bang ― thin shirt

2. sparse

   doòng ỏi bang ― sparse clumps of sugar cane

3. rare

   rườn lục bang ― a family with few children

4. weak

   mốc bang ― weak stomach

5. ashamed

   nả bang ― easily ashamed

• Lương Bèn (2011) Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary]‎^[5][6] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên

bang

1. what

• Zomi Ordbog based on the work of D.L. Haokip

From Proto-Vietic *t-ɓaːŋ.

• IPA^(key): /baːŋ¹/

bang

1. (Cuối Chăm) muntjac

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɓaːŋ˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɓaːŋ˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʔɓaːŋ˧˧]

Sino-Vietnamese word from 邦.

(classifier cái) bang

1. (Vietnam) state (a political division of a federation)

   Thành phố Oklahoma là thủ phủ bang Oklahoma.

   Oklahoma City is the capital of the state of Oklahoma.

   bang Kê-ra-la trong nước Cộng hòa Ấn Độ

   the State of Kerala in the Republic of India

   Thụy Sĩ có 26 bang.

   Switzerland has 26 cantons.

• (state): tiểu bang (chiefly overseas Vietnamese)

• liên bang
• tỉnh bang

bang

1. (Central Vietnam, Southern Vietnam) to crash into; to collide with; to hit

   Synonyms: bá, tông

Sino-Vietnamese word from 幫.

bang

1. (historical) community of overseas Chinese in French Indochina who emigrated from the same province of China

   bang Phúc Kiến

   the Fukien Chinese expatriates' society

2. short for bang tá (“assistant district chief”)
3. short for bang biện (“assistant district chief”)

• hội quán

• Hồ Ngọc Đức, editor (2003), “bang”, in Việt–Việt‎^[7] (DICT), Leipzig: Free Vietnamese Dictionary Project (details), archived from the original on 12 November 2024

• IPA^(key): /baŋ˧/

bang

1. wall

• Lukram Himmat Singh (2013) A Descriptive Grammar of Zou, Canchipur: Manipur University, page 41

bang

1. arm

• Samson Alexander Lotven (2021) The Sound Systems of Zophei Dialects and Other Maraic Languages (Dissertation)‎^[8]