grateful

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English

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Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin gratus (pleasing, agreeable) + -ful, morphologically grate +‎ -ful.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡɹeɪtfəl/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪtfəl
  • Hyphenation: grate‧ful

Adjective

grateful (comparative gratefuller or more grateful, superlative gratefullest or most grateful)

  1. Appreciative; thankful.
    I'm grateful that you helped me out.
    I'm grateful to you for helping me out.
    • 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:
      Carroll thought he had equalised with his header against the bar with eight minutes left. Liverpool claimed the ball had cross the line and Chelsea were grateful for a miraculous intervention from Cech to turn his effort on to the woodwork.
    • 2025, Cid Swanenvleugel, The Pre-Roman Elements of the Sardinian Lexicon, page 14:
      Even if the resulting hypotheses fail to convince, the large amounts of lexical data gathered from a wealth of disparate sources especially by Bertoldi, Alessio and Hubschmid, are impressive in their own right, and I have made grateful use of these scholars' efforts in this study.
  2. (obsolete or archaic) Pleasing, welcome.
    • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
      Neighbour, this is a gift very grateful, I am sure of it.
    • 1659–1660, Thomas Stanley, “ Chap XXIII. Of Fortitude, against Discontent of Mind.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Third and Last Volume, , volume III, London: Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring, , →OCLC, 5th part (Containing the Epicurean Sect), 3rd part of philosophy (Ethick, or Morals), page 261:
      he aſſwagement of his diſcontent conſiſts in two things, formerly preſcribed as remedies againſt corporeall pain; viz. Diverſion of his thoughts from his loſſe, or the cause of it; and an application of them to thoſe things, which he knowes to be gratefull and pleaſant to his mind.
    • 1839, Robert Hooper, Klein Grant, Lexicon Medicum: or, Medical Dictionary, 4th edition, page 1177:
      its glands give forth gum arabic; and its flowers an odour of a very grateful fragrance.
    • 1841, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Skeleton in Armor:
      Fell I upon my spear,
      Oh, death was grateful!
    • 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, chapter 67, in Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; , London: John Murray, , →OCLC:
      grateful underfoot was the damp and slightly yielding beach, from which the waves seemed just retired.
    • 1929, “Introduction”, in Theodore Howard Banks, Jr., transl., Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, New York: F. S. Crofts & Co., Inc., →OCLC, pages 7–8:
      The system of four-beat alliterative Anglo-Saxon poetry permitted such a range of unaccented syllables between stresses that an exact reproduction of this quality seemed undesirable. The translator, has, therefore, permitted himself no more than two unaccented syllables between stresses The resultant effect is a freely equivalenced anapestic measure, perhaps more grateful to modern ears than the less normalized beat of the original.

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