grey

CEFRA1

/ɡɹeɪ/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Having a color between black and white.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    A surname transferred from the nickname, alternative spelling of Gray.

Examples

  • All cats are grey in the dark.

  • We made Mr Grey chairman of the committee.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Synonym of coloured (pertaining to the mixed race of black and white).

  2. Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.

More examples

In context

  • The dull grey of the sky

  • These grey and dun colors may be also produced by mixing whites and blacks.

  • Now only a few hand-hewn cedar planks and roof beams remained, moss-grown and sagging—a few totem poles, greyed and split.

Synonyms

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Nearby

Origin

adjective

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”)).