gray

adj
/ɡɹeɪ/

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”).

  1. derived from *ǵʰreh₁- — “to green, to grow
  2. inherited from *grēwaz — “grey
  3. inherited from *grāu
  4. inherited from grǣġ
  5. inherited from gray

Definitions

  1. Of a color between black and white, having neutral hue and intermediate brightness.

  2. Dreary, gloomy, cloudy.

    • 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.
  3. Of indistinct, disputed or uncertain quality or acceptability.

  4. + 17 more definitions
    1. Gray-haired.

      • I have already gone gray and lost my looks.
    2. Old.

      • 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.
    3. Relating to older people.

      • the gray dollar
    4. To turn gray.

      • My hair is beginning to gray.
    5. To turn progressively older, alluding to graying of hair through aging (used in context…

      To turn progressively older, alluding to graying of hair through aging (used in context of the population of a geographic region)

      • the graying of America
      • It’s not what advocates of retrofitting the suburbs may have had in mind, but it’s a logical outcome of the graying of America, and of suburbia in particular.
    6. To give a soft effect to (a photograph) by covering the negative while printing with a…

      To give a soft effect to (a photograph) by covering the negative while printing with a ground-glass plate.

    7. An achromatic colour between black and white.

    8. An animal or thing of grey colour, such as a horse, badger, or salmon.

    9. A gray wolf

      • Caywood holds the rifle which time after time brought down a raging, snarling prairie gray.
    10. A gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus.

      • Log-shaped barnacles become embedded in the hide of the gray.
    11. Synonym of grey alien.

    12. A penny with a tail on both sides, used for cheating.

    13. In the International System of Units, the derived unit of absorbed dose of radiation…

      In the International System of Units, the derived unit of absorbed dose of radiation (radiation absorbed by a patient); one joule of energy absorbed per kilogram of the patient's mass.

    14. A surname transferred from the nickname

      A surname transferred from the nickname; originally a nickname for someone with a gray beard or hair.

      • In Wyoming, a GOP state senator forwarded an FGA draft bill to Secretary of State Chuck Gray that would prohibit sending out unsolicited absentee ballot request forms.
    15. A male given name.

    16. A number of places in the United States

      A number of places in the United States:

    17. A rural locality in north-east Tasmania, Australia.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at gray. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01gray02dreary03drab04dun05grey

A definitional loop anchored at gray. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

5 hops · closes at gray

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA