gait

Gait means the way a person or animal walks or runs.

Gait is often used in the context of horses and show dogs when analyzing how they walk, trot, and run. The human gait is studied in medicine and in sports like running. Gait can also be used as a verb meaning to teach a horse a particular gait.

Example: You can tell that his gait is affected by a limp.

The first records of gait in English come from the early 1500s. It comes from Scots, which is English as spoken in Scotland. Gait is a spelling variant of gate, which in Scotland can be used to mean “a path” or “a way of behaving.”

Horses don’t just walk and run. They trot, canter, gallop, and move in a way called a rack (which means they move the legs on one side of their body and then the other). Each of these is a different gait. At dog shows, dogs are judged on their gait, which depending on the breed is often a kind of regal prancing.

You have a gait, and it’s different from everyone else’s. In fact, the field of biometrics is developing ways to measure a person’s gait as a unique identifier, like a fingerprint. In medicine, an unsteady or wide gait can be a marker of a neurological condition. Patients who’ve had a procedure like a hip replacement may need therapy to return their gait to normal. Competitive runners often work to make sure they don’t use an improper gait, which can lead to painful conditions.

What are some synonyms for gait?

• stride
• bearing
• carriage

What are some words that share a root or word element with gait? 

• gate

What are some words that often get used in discussing gait?

• step
• foot
• leg
• horse
• dog
• injury
• mobility

What are some words gait may be commonly confused with?

• gate

Gait is commonly used in the analysis of how horses and dogs walk and run. Humans’ gait is important to the sport of running as well as in some medical contexts.

Today in 1878, Eadweard Muybridge took photos analyzing a horse's galloping gait. Foundation of motion pictures. pic.twitter.com/ykbrSuHEI6

— Charles Bergquist (@cbquist) June 15, 2015

When your stride is so bad it's painful. A look at how a runner's gait can cause injury: http://t.co/2O7Iv61lzx pic.twitter.com/XUr9vuUAEC

— Stefanie Ilgenfritz (@stefaniei) September 23, 2014

Thanks for coming to my stream! I sketched my characters running.
I enjoy how different gaits can give so much context to characters pic.twitter.com/tjeD6vJHHo

— Juby 쥬비 🎻(･ิω･ิ ) (@CutTimeComic) October 3, 2017

Is gait used correctly in the following sentence? 

Make sure you don’t have too wide of a gait when running—you may hurt your knee.