gray
/ɡɹeɪ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.45 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of a color between black and white, having neutral hue and intermediate brightness.
American usage
adj
Old.
American usage
verb
To turn progressively older, alluding to graying of hair through aging (used in context of the population of a geographic region)
American usage; Slang
Example Sentences
- "the era of gray, boring banality and stagnation"
- "It's a pretty grey outlook for England if these are a sample of the mothers of the coming generation."
- "I have already gone gray and lost my looks."
- "Two hours, whose mighty circle did embrace More time than might make grey the infant world, Rolled thus, a weary and tumultuous space: […]"
- "In a subculture that idealizes youth, being gay and gray does not exactly make one a hot ticket. Older gays and lesbians often relegate themselves to separate and unequal meeting places."
- "the gray dollar"
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *gʰreh₁-, gray, grǣġ, *grāu, *grēwaz, *ǵʰreh₁-
Usage
- American usage
- Slang
- Transitive verb
Inflected Forms
grayer (comparative)
more gray (comparative)
grayest (superlative)
most gray (superlative)
grey (alternative)
grays (present, singular)
graying (participle, present)
grayed (participle, past)
grayed (past)
grays (plural)
Derived Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
mul:Gy
rad