Join free

Grey

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

grey¹

  • /ɡɹeɪ/ UK, US

Rhymes with -eɪ

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁-der.?

Proto-Germanic *grēwaz

Proto-West Germanic *grāg

Old English [Term?]

Old English grēġ

Middle English grey

English grey

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”)).

adjective greyer · more grey · greyest · most grey

  1. Commonwealth standard spelling of gray. These grey and dun colors may be also produced by mixing whites and blacks.
  2. South Africa, slang Synonym of coloured (pertaining to the mixed race of black and white).

verb greys · greying · greyed

  1. Commonwealth standard spelling of gray. Now only a few hand-hewn cedar planks and roof beams remained, moss-grown and sagging—a few totem poles, greyed and split.

noun greys

  1. Commonwealth standard spelling of gray. Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, / That costs thy life, my gallant grey.

Grey²

proper noun Greys

  1. countable, uncountable A surname transferred from the nickname, alternative spelling of Gray.
  2. countable, uncountable A rural municipality (the Rural Municipality of Grey) in south-central Manitoba, Canada, named after Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey.
  3. countable, uncountable A river in the West Coast Region, South Island, New Zealand; in full, Grey River.
  4. countable, uncountable A territorial authority, Grey District, on the West Coast, New Zealand, the successor of Grey County.
  5. abbreviation, countable, ellipsis, uncountable Ellipsis of Grey County.Grey County
  6. abbreviation, countable, ellipsis, informal, uncountable Ellipsis of Grey College, Durham.Grey College
  7. countable, uncountable An English earldom.

noun Greys

  1. UK, historical, in plural A member of the Royal Scots Greys, a cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1707 to 1971.

Talk about this word