gone

SayGAWN/ɡɔn/AUS/ɡɔːn/UKGON/ɡɒn/

Adjectivefurther gone, farther gone, goner, furthest gone, farthest gone, gonest

15 meanings of gone

Practice

1
went (with have)verb
Past participle of go.
The visitors have gone, leaving the hall quiet and empty.
By noon the storm had gone out to sea.
UsageAfter have: she has gone (not ~~incorrect: has went~~). Has gone to Paris means she is there or on her way; has been means she visited.
2
vanishedadjective
No longer present or no longer in existence, having left a place or passed into the past.
When he returned from the kitchen, his guest was gone.
The train was already gone by the time we reached the platform.
UsageUsually after be, often with already or long: the train was already gone, those days are long gone.
Similarabsent
3
none leftadjective
Entirely used up or consumed, leaving nothing left.
Our savings were gone within a year of the layoffs.
Half the budget is already gone and the project has barely started.
UsageOften all gone or already gone: the milk is all gone.
Similarspent, exhausted, depleted, finished
4
adjective
A gentle, indirect way of saying that a person has died.
We sat by her bed through the night, and by morning she was gone.
He was gone before the doctors could do anything more.
UsageA soft way to speak of a death, usually after be: by morning she was gone.
Similardeparted, dead
Oppositealive, living
Note
A gentle word that can even stand as a noun for the dead themselves. Letitia Elizabeth Landon, in Ethel Churchill (1837), describes memorials "all alike dedicated to the gone," using it the way one uses the departed. That noun use has a solemn, literary ring.

Less common meanings

5
adjective
Certain to be destroyed or to fail, beyond any hope of rescue.
When the levee broke, everyone knew the lower town was gone.
Down three pieces with no counterplay, his chess position was gone.
Similardoomed, lost, finished, hopeless
6
adjectivecolloquial
Only partly aware of what is happening around one, often because of intoxication or a decline in mental ability.
After his fourth drink he was completely gone, staring at the wall and not hearing a word we said.
After the stroke, there were long afternoons when she seemed entirely gone.
Similarwasted, vacant, woozy
7
broken downadjective
No longer functioning, having broken down or failed.
The transmission was gone, so the mechanic recommended scrapping the car.
Her phone's battery is gone; it won't hold a charge anymore.
Similardead, broken, shot, kaput
8
time so faradjective
Used after a stated duration to indicate how far a process has advanced, especially how far along a pregnancy is.
She was eight months gone and could barely manage the stairs.
Forty minutes gone, and the home side still trailed by a goal.
UsageThe length of time comes first: eight months gone, forty minutes gone.
9
after (clock time)prepositioncolloquialBritish
Past or later than a stated clock time.
We can't get dinner now. It's gone nine already.
He didn't stumble in until gone midnight.
UsageUsually with a clock time: it's gone nine, gone midnight. It works like past but hints that it is late.
Similarpast, after
10
in loveadjectiveslang
Infatuated with or deeply in love with someone, usually constructed with on.
Like a moth drawn helplessly toward a porch light.
Everyone in the office could tell he was gone on her.
By the second date she was hopelessly gone on him.
UsageUsually be gone on someone, after a verb rather than before a noun; for also occurs.
Similarsweet, stuck, smitten, infatuated, besotted
Note
Henry James has "gone for you" in The Wings of the Dove (1902). It takes intensifiers comfortably, as in W. Somerset Maugham's "frightfully gone on him" in Of Human Bondage (1915).
11
going tocontractioncolloquialcontraction
Alternative spelling of gon /gon'. Nonstandard, representing a casual pronunciation of going to.
She said she gone fix the fence this weekend.
They gone find out the truth sooner or later.
UsageFollowed by a bare verb, with no to: gone call, gone be late.
Note
A different word that shares the spelling: gon, the clipped form of gonna or going to, written as it sounds. Noire's Thug-A-Licious (2006) has "I was prolly gone die by it too." It belongs to written dialogue, and although both trace back to go, it is a separate form from the past participle.
12
adjectivearchaic
Before the present time; ago, used after a length of time.
Six nights gone, your brother fell upon my uncle Stafford, encamped with his host at a village called Oxcross not three days ride from Casterly Rock.
1999, George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
Note
This is an old way of counting backward in time, placed after the stretch of time it measures: six nights gone, forty years gone. Archaic in ordinary speech, it suits writing that wants an antique voice; George R.R. Martin uses it in A Clash of Kings. Keep it apart from the "months gone" pregnancy use, which measures how far something has progressed, not how long ago it happened.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Gone has an archaic postpositive meaning equivalent to ago. en.wiktionary.org
George R.R. Martin uses this construction in A Clash of Kings. en.wiktionary.org
George R.R. Martin wrote A Clash of Kings. en.wikipedia.org
13
faintadjectiveUS
Weak or faint, with a hollow, sinking sensation inside.
When the plane dropped suddenly, he got that gone feeling in the pit of his stomach.
After a long shift with nothing to eat, she had a weak, gone feeling and reached for the candy bar in her bag.
Similarfaint, weak, hollow
Note
An American use for a bodily sensation: the hollow, sinking weakness that the noun goneness names. It describes how a person feels, not where they are, so he felt gone means faint, not absent. Because the "away" sense fits the same frame, this meaning reads clearly only with feel or a context of weakness.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
The noun goneness names bodily exhaustion or faintness. en.wiktionary.org
14
excellentadjectivedatedUS
Excellent or wonderful; sometimes thrillingly wild or crazy.
Like a jazz solo so good the whole room leans in.
The crowd swayed and shouted that the whole set was real gone.
Dad, I want to be a jock. All a jock needs is some hep patter and a real gone image. Now, they just don't teach that jazz in college.
1975, Garry Marshall et al., “Richie's Flip Side”
Similarcool, wild, crazy, wonderful
Note
Hipster praise from mid-century America, now dated. Jack Kerouac's On the Road (1957) has "the gonest little girl in the world." Unlike its siblings, this sense happily takes a superlative, gonest, and it pairs with real as an intensifier: real gone cats, real gone music. It turns up again in Happy Days (1975), with a teenager wanting "a real gone image."
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
Gone belonged to American hipster vocabulary around the middle of the twentieth century. ww2yearbooks.org
Jack Kerouac wrote On the Road. en.wikipedia.org
On the Road was first published in 1957. penguinrandomhouse.com
On the Road contains the exact quoted phrase. en.wiktionary.org
The Happy Days episode containing the quotation aired in 1975. en.wikipedia.org
The phrase “a real gone image” is spoken by Richie Cunningham. en.wiktionary.org
Richie Cunningham is portrayed as a teenager. en.wikipedia.org
15
adjectivearchaic
Of a shot arrow: flying well wide of or beyond the mark.

gone is a form of go

go, verb: To move to or through a place, said of people, vehicles, or intangible things like news or a mood. Full entry

Forms: gogoes he/she/itgoing -ing formwent past tensegone past participle
Spelling: go → gone: irregular (no -ed)

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of gone apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

"Gone" comes from Middle English gon (also gan and other forms), from Old English gān, the past participle of the verb meaning "to go," going back to Proto-Germanic *gānaz. It is related to Scots gane, West Frisian gien, Low German gahn, and Dutch gegaan, all meaning "gone."

Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

Gone derives from Middle English gon, with variants including gan. en.wiktionary.org
Its Old English ancestor gān was a past participle meaning gone, traced to Proto-Germanic *gānaz. en.wiktionary.org
Scots gane, West Frisian gien, Low German gahn, and Dutch gegaan are related forms meaning gone. en.wiktionary.org