You might be familiar with the phrase “run the gamut,” meaning “to experience, display, or perform the complete range of something,” but the word “gamut” was originally a musical term. The Latin “gamma ut” was the name of the lowest note in the medieval scale (bass G an octave and a half below middle C). “Gamut” was then applied to the whole range of notes used in medieval music. While the term is still in use to describe the complete range of a voice or instrument, “gamut” has expanded beyond the musical world. Now the word is used to signify the complete scope of something.