What is the term for a male goose?

The term for an adult male goose is a gander.

“Goose” can be used broadly for a bird of either sex, but in the traditional sex-specific vocabulary, a female is a goose and a male is a gander. A young goose is called a gosling, making these terms useful distinctions in farming, birdwatching, and older animal literature.

The word gander comes from the same Germanic linguistic family as goose. English retained related forms while developing the familiar irregular plural “geese.” The phrase “a goose and a gander” therefore reflects a real male–female pairing rather than two different species.

Ganders are often larger than females and may be especially conspicuous during nesting. In domestic geese, the male commonly positions himself between a perceived threat and his mate or young. The word also appears in the expression “have a gander,” meaning to take a look, and in the saying “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”