English Explanatory Dictionary

gray

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Of a color between black and white, having neutral hue and intermediate brightness.
  2. Dreary, gloomy, cloudy.
  3. Of indistinct, disputed or uncertain quality or acceptability.
  4. Gray-haired.
  5. Old.
  6. Relating to older people.
verb
  1. To turn gray.
  2. To turn progressively older, alluding to graying of hair through aging (used in context of the population of a geographic region)
  3. To give a soft effect to (a photograph) by covering the negative while printing with a ground-glass plate.
noun
  1. An achromatic colour between black and white.
  2. An animal or thing of grey colour, such as a horse, badger, or salmon.
  3. A gray wolf
  4. A gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus.
  5. Synonym of grey alien.
  6. A penny with a tail on both sides, used for cheating.
noun
  1. In the International System of Units, the derived unit of absorbed dose of radiation (radiation absorbed by a patient); one joule of energy absorbed per kilogram of the patient's mass.
name
  1. A surname transferred from the nickname; originally a nickname for someone with a gray beard or hair.
  2. A male given name.
  3. A number of places in the United States:
  4. A city, the county seat of Jones County, Georgia.
  5. A minor city in Audubon County, Iowa.
  6. An unincorporated community in Knox County, Kentucky.
  7. A census-designated place in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana.
  8. A town and census-designated place therein, in Cumberland County, Maine.
  9. A census-designated place in Washington County, Tennessee.
  10. A rural locality in north-east Tasmania, Australia.

Pronunciation

grā /ɡɹeɪ/ en-us-gray.ogg En-uk-grey.ogg En-us-grey.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-PerfectSoundWhatever-grey.wav En-Gray.ogg

Word forms

gray grayer more gray grayest most gray grey grays graying grayed

Etymology

From Middle English gray, from Old English grǣġ (West Saxon). The spelling gray reflects the West Saxon vowel development, whereas the variant grey stems from the Anglian form grēġ (through Middle English grey). Further derived from Proto-West Germanic *grāu, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz (“grey”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁- (“to green, to grow”). Cognate with West Frisian grau (“grey”), Dutch grauw (“grey”), German Low German grau, graag (“grey”), German grau (“grey”), Swedish grå (“grey”), Icelandic grár (“grey”), Latin rāvus (“tawny, grey”), Old Church Slavonic зьрѭ (zĭrjǫ, “to see, to glance”), archaic Russian зреть (zretʹ, “to watch, to look at”), Lithuanian žeriù (“to shine”).

Synonyms

grayish grizzly gray / grey grayey / greyey grayish / greyish griseous grisescent hoary bleak sombre cheerless comfortless dark morose depressing desolate dire disconsolate dismal doleful dolesome drear drearisome dreary dreich forlorn gayless gray gloomsome gloomy grim joyless lack-laughter lugubrious melancholy mirthless miserable no joke saturnine solemn somber spiritless sullen sunless uncheerful uncheery unhappy unmerry wintry woeful fuzzy wooly ambiguous equivocal generic imperspicuous imprecise indeterminate indefinite indistinct

Related words

mul:Gy

Derived words

all cats are gray at night all cats are gray in the dark ash gray ash-gray ash-gray leaf bug back gray battleship-gray battleship gray blackish-gray antshrike blue-gray cadet gray cool gray dove gray eastern gray kangaroo eastern gray squirrel get gray hair from give gray hair to give someone gray hair gray-A gray ace gray alien gray amber gray ammonia gray area gray asexual gray asexuality gray baby syndrome graybeard gray-blue grayboard graybody gray-box testing gray catbird gray ceiling gray cells gray-collar gray collar gray commissure gray cuscus gray divorce gray dogwood gray eminence grayen gray energy gray ephedra grayey gray fox gray friar gray ghost gray gold gray ground squirrel gray-haired gray hat grayhead gray-headed gray hen grayhound gray hydrogen gray iron grayish

Translations

Asturian: canecer Asturian: encanecer Azerbaijani: bozarmaq Bulgarian: посивявам Catalan: agrisar Danish: gråne Dutch: grijzen Dutch: vergrijzen Estonian: halliks minema Finnish: harmaantua Finnish: harmentua Finnish: harmaannuttaa Finnish: harmentaa French: griser German: ergrauen German: grau werden Greek: γκριζάρω Hungarian: szürkül Hungarian: elszürkül Hungarian: őszül Hungarian: szürkít Hungarian: elszürkít Ido: grizeskar Ido: grizigar Irish: liath Italian: ingrigire Latin: cānēscō Navajo: yiibááh Norman: grisi Polish: siwieć Portuguese: acinzentar Russian: сере́ть Russian: седе́ть Northern Sami: rátnut Spanish: encanecer Swedish: gråna Turkish: grileşmek Ukrainian: сивіти Ukrainian: посивіти Vietnamese: bạc Afrikaans: grys Albanian: hi Southern Altai: бос Armenian: մոխրագույն Asturian: gris Basque: gris Bulgarian: сив Catalan: gris Cherokee: ᎤᏍᎪᎸ ᏌᎪᏂᎨ Chichewa: imvi Chinese Mandarin: 灰 Chinese Mandarin: 灰色 Czech: šedá Danish: grå Dutch: grijs Esperanto: grizo Estonian: hall Faroese: gráur Faroese: grátt Finnish: harmaa French: gris Galician: gris Georgian: ნაცრისფერი Georgian: რუხი German: Grau Greek: γκρι Greek: σταχτί Greek: φαιό Gujarati: ગ્રે Hebrew: אָפוֹר Hungarian: szürke Icelandic: grár Indonesian: abu-abu Irish: liath Irish: glas Italian: grigio Japanese: 灰色 Japanese: 鼠色 Khmer: ពណ៌ប្រផេះ Korean: 회색
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