Greats

How to spell greats

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce greats

What does greats mean?

1. nounThe most outstanding or admired people in a particular field or era.

Greats in a sentence

• His name now sits among the all-time greats of boxing.

• The museum honours the greats of early jazz with a dedicated gallery.

Where does greats come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the plural of the noun use of 'great', which descends from the Old English gre, written grēat, an adjective that originally meant 'thick', 'coarse', or 'massive' rather than 'excellent'. Over the medieval period the sense shifted from sheer physical bulk toward importance and distinction, so that a 'great' person came to mean an eminent or outstanding one. The noun use, treating 'great' as a thing or a person rather than a quality, let writers speak of 'the greats' meaning the most admired figures in some field. The word is closely related to Dutch 'groot' and German 'gross', both still carrying the older idea of large size. Because it sounds exactly like 'grates', the plural form is an easy spelling slip; remember that these 'greats' are the great ones, sharing their letters with 'great'.

How the word is built

• great (from Old English gre, great: big, eminent)
• -s (plural noun marker)