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grey

noun · adjective · verb

Simple meaning

A neutral color between black and white.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

gray
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɡɹeɪ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A neutral color between black and white.

  2. Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.

  3. A rural municipality (the Rural Municipality of Grey) in south-central Manitoba, Canada, named after Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey.

  4. A territorial authority, Grey District, on the West Coast, New Zealand, the successor of Grey County.

  5. Clothing that is a grey color

  6. An English earldom.

adjective

  1. Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.

verb

  1. Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: a neutral color between black and white.

Used this way, grey is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

grey matterearl greygrey arealord greydark greygrey eyesgrey hairgeorge grey

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • grey floundernounCompound term

    Flounder found from North Carolina to Florida and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

  • grey foxnounCompound term

    Dark grey American fox.

  • grey friarnounCompound term

    A Roman Catholic friar wearing the grey habit of the Franciscan order.

  • grey goldenrodnounCompound term

    A dyer's weed of Canada and the eastern United States having yellow flowers sometimes used in dyeing.

  • grey hennounCompound term

    Female black grouse.

  • grey jaynounCompound term

    A jay of northern North America with black-capped head and no crest.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • greyish brownnounRelated term

    A color or pigment varying around a light grey-brown color.

  • greylag goosenounRelated term

    Common grey wild goose of Europe.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: commonwealth standard spelling of gray

colorlessgreyish

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.