Added 9 October 2026
grey
/ɡɹeɪ/ noun
Latin root: rāvus Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about grey at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- United States writer of western adventure novels (1875-1939).
- Queen of England for nine days in 1553; she was quickly replaced by Mary Tudor and beheaded for treason (1537-1554).
- Englishman who as Prime Minister implemented social reforms including the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire (1764-1845).
verb
adjective
-
Of an achromatic color of any lightness intermediate between the extremes of white and black.
the little grey cells
-
Showing characteristics of age, especially having grey or white hair.
whose beard with age is hoar
-
Used to signify the Confederate forces in the American Civil War (who wore grey uniforms).
a stalwart grey figure
Origin
From Middle English grey, from Old English grēġ (Anglian). The spelling grey reflects the Anglian vowel development, whereas the variant gray stems from the West Saxon form grǣġ (through Middle English gray). Further derived from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz (compare Dutch grauw, German grau, Old Norse grár), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁- (“to green, to grow”) (compare Latin rāvus (“grey”), Old Church Slavonic зьрѭ (zĭrjǫ, “to see, to glance”), Russian зреть (zretʹ, “to watch, to look at”) (archaic), Lithuanian žeriù (“to shine”)).
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)