Gaslighting is psychological manipulation, usually carried out over an extended period, that causes a person to question the validity of their own thoughts, perceptions, or memories. Merriam-Webster notes the tactic often leads to confusion, loss of confidence, and a growing dependency on the manipulator. A broader, more casual sense of the word simply means grossly misleading someone, especially for personal advantage.
What does gaslighting mean?
At its core, gaslighting describes a manipulator working to make a target distrust their own mind. Rather than a one-off lie, it is a repeated pattern: denying things that clearly happened, dismissing feelings as overreactions, or rewriting shared events until the target no longer trusts their memory. Over time this can erode self-esteem and leave the person reliant on the manipulator to define what is real.
Where does the word come from?
The term traces back to the 1938 stage play Gas Light by Patrick Hamilton and the film adaptations that followed in 1940 and 1944. In the story, a husband secretly dims and brightens the home’s gas lamps while insisting to his wife that nothing is changing, deliberately pushing her to believe she is losing her sanity. The plot gave the English language a vivid shorthand for this kind of reality-distorting deception.
How has its meaning changed?
When gaslighting first appeared in the mid-20th century, it referred narrowly to deception like that in the play. In more recent decades the word widened. Today people apply it to politics, advertising, workplaces, and public discourse to describe any effort to mislead an audience on a large scale. Merriam-Webster added a second, broader definition to capture this everyday usage.
Why did it become so common?
The word’s sharp rise in searches and conversation made it Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2022, with the dictionary reporting a large jump in lookups. Its popularity reflects wider public interest in emotional abuse, misinformation, and manipulation across relationships and media.
How is gaslighting used in a sentence?
You might read that a person felt they were being gaslit after a partner repeatedly denied conversations they clearly remembered, or that a company gaslit customers by insisting a defect did not exist. In each case the common thread is an attempt to make others doubt what they know to be true.
What are common signs of gaslighting?
Descriptions of gaslighting often point to recurring patterns rather than a single act. These can include flatly denying events that took place, trivializing another person’s feelings, shifting blame so the target feels at fault, and slowly isolating them from other viewpoints. Because the tactic works through repetition, its effects tend to build gradually, which is part of why it can be hard to recognize from the inside.
How does the word appear in everyday conversation?
Beyond clinical or relationship contexts, gaslighting now shows up in discussions of news, marketing, and social media, where people use it to describe attempts to reshape a shared understanding of facts. This wider usage is exactly what prompted dictionaries to broaden the definition, and it explains the sharp rise in how often the word is looked up and quoted.
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Part of speech | Noun and verb |
| Origin | 1938 play Gas Light |
| Core sense | Manipulation that distorts a person’s sense of reality |
| Notable milestone | Merriam-Webster Word of the Year 2022 |
Frequently Asked Questions
What does gaslighting mean?
It is psychological manipulation that makes someone doubt their own memory, perception, or sanity.
Where does the word come from?
From the 1938 play Gas Light and its film versions, in which a man dims the lights and denies it.
Is gaslighting the same as lying?
No. It is a sustained pattern of manipulation meant to distort another person's sense of reality, not a single untruth.
When did the word become popular?
Its use surged in the 2010s and 2020s, and it was Merriam-Webster's 2022 Word of the Year.