Grey

Pronunciation

• enPR: grā, IPA: /ɡɹeɪ/
• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophones: gray, greige

Origin

See "gray".

Full definition of grey

Adjective

1. (chiefly British, Australian and Canadian, alternative in US) Alternative form of gray
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 17, The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. ….
• 2013-08-03, Revenge of the nerds, Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.

Usage notes

A mnemonic for remembering which spelling is used where: grey is the English spelling, while gray is the American spelling. However, grey is also frequently found in American English.

Derived terms

• battleship grey
• grey area
• greybeard
• grey eminence
• greyhound
• greyness
• grey ghost
• grey matter

Verb

1. (chiefly British, Australian and Canadian, alternative in US) Alternative form of grayMy hair is beginning to grey.

Noun

1. (chiefly British, Australian and Canadian, alternative in US) Alternative form of gray

Anagrams

• gyre