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Glite Dictionary
Golden Gate

Golden Gate

9 2.6
A narrow sea passage that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean
  • proper noun
  • /ˈɡoʊldən ɡeɪt/
translation icon : Golden Gate
  • A crew was working on the approach to the Golden Gate, putting in new railings and fixing the pavement.
  • Golden Gate Bridge
  • Golden Gate Park
  • California's Golden Gate

You know, as engineers, if you said I got to build a bridge across the the Golden Gate, there's a lot of things you have to do to make that work.

Examples

  • The guy who designed the Golden Gate Bridge.

    Pineapple Express (2008)

  • - Oh, the Golden Gate Bridge.

    Cold Ones (2007)

  • What do you want me to start with, the Golden Gate Bridge?

    Vertigo (1958)

  • Government bonds did not pay for the building of the Golden Gate Bridge.

    Blog text (16)

  • Our first sight of the US was the Golden Gate Bridge, a sight that remains burned in my memory.

    Blog text (11)

  • "I have a top-floor apartment, a view of the Golden Gate so wide I have to turn my head to see it all."

    Fiction book (1993)

  • You'll pass beneath the famous Golden Gate Bridge, considered to be one of the most striking structures ever erected by man.

    Birdman of Alcatraz (1962)

  • Now 75 years old, San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge is arguably the most recognizable bridge in the world.

    Blog text (17)

  • San Francisco's iconic bridge spans the Golden Gate, the strait that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean.

    Blog text (7)

  • The Hornet and its escorts sailed under the Golden Gate on April 2.

Surface Forms

Golden Gate main

Morphology

Golden + Gate

This is a proper name for a specific geographic feature (and commonly the bridge) whose reference cannot be derived from 'golden' (gold-colored or valuable) + 'gate' (an entrance). Although 'gate' may loosely suggest an entrance, the specific meaning 'a strait connecting San Francisco Bay with the Pacific Ocean' is cultural/world knowledge rather than a predictable compositional meaning, so learners who only know the constituents are unlikely to infer it.

Etymology

Golden Gate was named by an early explorer who called the narrow waterway a shining gate and saw it as a 'golden' entrance to the rich lands of California during the Gold Rush. That's why the name now refers to the narrow water 'entrance' between the bay and the ocean.