Greet

How to spell greet

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce greet

What does greet mean?

1. verbTo welcome or address someone in a polite or friendly way when meeting them.

Greet in a sentence

• The host stood at the door to greet each arriving guest.

• Staff are trained to greet every customer with a smile.

Where does greet come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from the Old English verb grētan, which meant 'to approach, address, or accost' rather than simply 'to welcome'. It belongs to a wider family of Germanic verbs, with close relatives such as the Dutch groeten and the German grüßen, all carrying the sense of saluting or hailing a person. The earliest meaning leaned more towards 'to come up to someone with words', whether in friendship or in challenge, and only over time did it narrow to the warm sense of a friendly welcome that dominates today. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable, keeping its simple double vowel; the modern 'ee' reflects the long vowel that English vowel changes settled on, so the word is largely a spelling trap only because writers must remember it is not spelled like 'greete' or 'great'. Because it is such an old native word, it never picked up any Latin or French dressing on its way into modern English.

How the word is built

• greet (from Old English grētan: to approach, accost, salute)