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great

adj
/ˈɡɹeɪt/US/ˈɡɹæɪt//ˈɡɹeːt/CA

Etymology

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.

  1. derived from *gʰrewd-✻
  2. inherited from *grautaz✻ — “coarse, crude; big, large”
  3. inherited from *graut✻
  4. inherited from grēat — “big, massive; tall; thick; coarse”
  5. inherited from greet

Definitions

  1. Taking much space

    Taking much space; large.

  2. Very good

    Very good; excellent; wonderful; fantastic.

    • Dinner was great.

  3. Important, consequential.

    • a great dilemma
    • a great decision
    • So the King made Daniel a great man […]
  4. ›+ 14 more definitions

    1. Involving more generations than the qualified word implies — as many extra generations as…

      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

    2. Pregnant

      Pregnant; large with young; full of.

      • great with child
      • great with hope
      • the ewes great with young

    3. Intimate

      Intimate; familiar.

      • those that are so great with him

    4. Arising from or possessing idealism

      Arising from or possessing idealism; admirable; commanding; illustrious; eminent.

      • a great deed
      • a great nature
      • a great history

    5. Impressive or striking.

      • a great show of wealth

    6. Much in use

      Much in use; favoured.

      • Poetry was a great convention of the Romantic era.

    7. Of much talent or achievements.

      • a great hero, scholar, genius, philosopher, writer, etc.

    8. Doing or exemplifying (a characteristic or pursuit) on a large scale

      Doing or exemplifying (a characteristic or pursuit) on a large scale; active or enthusiastic.

      • What a great buffoon!
      • He’s not a great one for reading.
      • a great walker

    9. Expression of gladness and content about something.

      • Great! Thanks for the wonderful work.
      • —I am in my new apartment! —Great!

    10. 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.

    11. A person of major significance, accomplishment or acclaim.

      • Newton and Einstein are two of the greats of the history of science.

    12. The main division in a pipe organ, usually the loudest division.

    13. An instance of the word "great" signifying an additional generation in phrases expressing…

      An instance of the word "great" signifying an additional generation in phrases expressing family relationships.

      • My three-greats grandmother.

    14. Very well (in a very satisfactory manner).

      • Those mechanical colored pencils work great because they don’t have to be sharpened.

The neighborhood

Derived

a great deal, a great many, behind every great man is a great woman, behind every great man there stands a woman, child-great, death is the great leveller, double great primer, engreaten, go great guns, go to great lengths, great albatross, great antshrike, great ape, great artery, Great Assize, great auk, great-aunt, great aunt, greataxe, great balls of fire, great bass, great bass recorder, great beyond, great bifurcation, great big, great bit bucket in the sky, great bittern, great black-backed gull, great black hawk, great blue heron, great blue lobelia, greatbow, great brown kingfisher, great bulrush, great bustard, great cabin, great Caesar's ghost, great cardiac vein, great casino, great cassino · +298 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at great. 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.

01great02wonderful03excite04stir05emotionally06emotional07strong

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

7 hops · closes at great

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