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great

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great

  • /ˈɡɹeɪt/ US, UK
  • /ˈɡɹɛjt/ British, Southern, Standard
  • /ˈɡɹæɪt/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /ˈɡɾet/ Scotland
  • /ˈɡɾeːt/ Wales
  • [ˈɡɹeːt] Canada
  • [ˈɡɹeːt]
  • [ˈɡɹɛːt]
  • /ˈɡɹɛt/
  • /ɡɹiːt/
  • /ɡɹɛːt/

Sounds like grate, greet · Rhymes with -eɪt

Where it comes from

From Middle English greet, grete (“great, large”), from Old English grēat (“big, massive; tall; thick; coarse”), from Proto-West Germanic *graut, from Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“coarse, crude; big, large”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewd-, *gʰer- (“to rub; to stroke; to grind; to remove”).

Cognates

Cognate with Scots graat, great, greet (“great”), Yola graat (“great”), North Frisian grat, groot, grot, grut, gråt, gurt (“big, great, large”), Saterland Frisian groot (“big, large”), West Frisian grut (“big, great, large”), Alemannic German groß, gruuss (“very large”), Central Franconian jruß (“big, great, large”), Cimbrian gròas, groaz (“big, great, large”), Dutch and German Low German groot (“big, great, large”), German gross, groß (“big, large”), Limburgish grut, gruët (“big, large; grand; tall; adult; pregnant”), Luxembourgish grouss (“big, great, large”), Mòcheno groas (“big, great, large”), Vilamovian grus, grūs (“big, great, large”), Yiddish גרויס (groys, “big, large”); also Latin grandis (“big, great, large”), Greek χρίω (chrío, “to anoint”), Albanian grind (“to brawl, fight”), Latvian grauds (“grain”), Lithuanian grūdas (“grain”), Czech hrouda, hruda (“clod”), Macedonian грутка (grutka, “clod, clump, lump”), Polish gruda (“clod, lump; frozen ground; mud fever, scratches”), Russian гру́да (grúda, “clod, heap, mass, pile”), Serbo-Croatian гру̏да, гру̏два, grȕda, grȕdva (“clod, lump; snowball”), Armenian կորկոտ (korkot, “groats of wheat or barley”), Sanskrit घर्षति (gharṣati, “to brush, polish, rub”). Related to grit. Doublet of gross.

The modern pronunciation shows an irregular change of Early Modern English /ɛː/ to /eɪ/ in the standard language; contrast this with the development of other words such as beat and heat.

adjective greater · greatest · geet · gert · girt · gurt

  1. Taking much space; large. “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like // Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer.[…]”
  2. Much, more than usual. great worry
  3. UK, informal Intensifying a word or expression, used in mild oaths. a dirty great smack in the face
  4. informal Very good; excellent; wonderful; fantastic. Dinner was great.
  5. Important, consequential. a great dilemma
  6. Involving more generations than the qualified word implies — as many extra generations as repetitions of the word great (from 1510s). great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, great-great-great-grandfather
  7. obsolete, postpositional Pregnant; large with young; full of. great with child
  8. obsolete Intimate; familiar. those that are so great with him
  9. Arising from or possessing idealism; admirable; commanding; illustrious; eminent. a great deed
  10. Impressive or striking. a great show of wealth
  11. Much in use; favoured. Poetry was a great convention of the Romantic era.
  12. Of much talent or achievements. a great hero, scholar, genius, philosopher, writer, etc.
  13. Doing or exemplifying (a characteristic or pursuit) on a large scale; active or enthusiastic. What a great buffoon!

Similar: grand, super-, supra-, hyper-, ultra-, uber-, macro-, arch-, over-, mega-, giga-, -zilla

interjection geet · gert · girt · gurt

  1. Expression of gladness and content about something. Great! Thanks for the wonderful work.
  2. A sarcastic inversion thereof. Oh, great! I just dumped all 500 sheets of the manuscript all over and now I have to put them back in order.

noun greats · geet · gert · girt · gurt

  1. A person of major significance, accomplishment or acclaim. Newton and Einstein are two of the greats of the history of science.
  2. The main division in a pipe organ, usually the loudest division.
  3. usually An instance of the word great signifying an additional generation in phrases expressing family relationships. my three-greats grandmother
  4. informal, rare A great-grandparent. I knew my great-gran, but no one really believed the Montez story until we saw photos of the sinous dancer. My great was the spiitng^([sic]) image of HER great.

adverb geet · gert · girt · gurt

  1. informal, not comparable Very well (in a very satisfactory manner). Those mechanical colored pencils work great because they don’t have to be sharpened.

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