Grey

How to spell grey

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce grey

What does grey mean?

1. adjectiveOf a colour between black and white, like ash or an overcast sky.
2. nounThe colour itself, lying between black and white.

Grey in a sentence

• adjective

  He wore a grey suit to the interview.

• noun

  The designer painted the whole office a soft grey.

• adjective

  The sky turned a dull grey before the rain set in.

• noun

  A warm grey works well with most furniture.

Where does grey come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Grey descends from the Old English grǣg, the everyday word for the colour between black and white, and it belongs to a wider family of Germanic relatives including Old Norse grar and German grau, all tracing back to a shared ancestor meaning roughly 'the colour of ash or cloud'. For centuries English writers used the word freely with either spelling, and 'grey' and 'gray' sat side by side in print well into the nineteenth century. The split hardened only later: British and Canadian usage settled firmly on 'grey', while American usage standardised on 'gray', which is why the e/a swap remains the single trap for this word. There is no Latin or French detour here; it is a genuinely old native word, which is why it feels so plain and familiar. A useful memory hook is that the 'e' spelling pairs with England, both beginning with the same vowel sound in spirit.

How the word is built

• grey (from Old English grǣg, the colour grey); a single native root with no prefix or suffix

British and American spelling

Grey is the British spelling. American English spells it gray.