gaslight
/ˈɡæs.laɪt/To manipulate someone psychologically so they begin to doubt their own memory, feelings, or sense of reality. The person doing it usually denies things that really happened or twists the truth to confuse the other person.
- He kept saying the argument never happened, trying to gaslight her.
- My manager gaslighted me by blaming me for his own mistakes.
- Don't let anyone gaslight you into thinking your feelings are wrong.
A lamp that produces light by burning gas, used widely before electric lighting became common. This is the word's original, historical meaning, now rarely used in everyday conversation.
- The old street was lined with gaslights that flickered in the wind.
- Victorian homes were lit by gaslights before electricity arrived.
Adinary Nuance
The word "gaslight" has undergone one of the most dramatic meaning shifts in recent English — from a Victorian lamp to a verb describing emotional abuse, all within about 80 years. Until the early 2010s, "gaslighting" was mostly limited to psychology textbooks and clinical discussions about narcissistic abuse. Social media, particularly Twitter and Reddit, pushed it into everyday speech, where it now appears in everything from relationship advice to political commentary. However, the word has become so popular that it is sometimes used loosely to mean any lie or denial — which flattens its real meaning. True gaslighting involves a sustained, deliberate pattern of manipulation designed to make a specific person doubt their own reality, not just a single instance of someone being dishonest.
In other languages
- Vietnamese
- thao túng tâm lý
- Spanish
- gaslighting
- Chinese
- 心理操纵
- Japanese
- ガスライティング
- Korean
- 가스라이팅
Etymology
The modern verb sense comes from the 1938 play "Gas Light" by British playwright Patrick Hamilton, later adapted into the 1944 Hollywood film "Gaslight," in which a husband secretly dims the gas lamps and denies it to make his wife believe she is going insane. The psychological usage entered mainstream English widely in the 2010s.
Common phrases
Synonyms
Related words
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between gaslighting and just lying?
- Lying is a single false statement. Gaslighting is a repeated, deliberate pattern where someone makes you doubt your own memory or sanity — not just what is true. The goal of gaslighting is to make you stop trusting yourself, not just to hide a specific fact.
- Is 'gaslight' formal or informal?
- It sits between informal and semi-formal. You will see it in therapy discussions, serious news articles, and everyday conversation. It is not slang, but it is also not standard academic language. It works well in both spoken and written English.
- Can I use 'gaslight' to describe a politician or public figure?
- Yes, and this is very common in modern English. People regularly say that a politician 'gaslighted' voters by denying events that were publicly recorded. Just be aware that some critics feel this use is too loose — strictly, gaslighting should involve a targeted, personal pattern of manipulation.
- Is 'gaslighting' one word or two?
- It is one word: 'gaslighting' (the noun/gerund form) and 'gaslight' (the verb). Both are widely accepted in modern dictionaries.