gray

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

gray

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• grey (used in the UK)

Etymology 1

From Middle English gray, from Old English grǣġ, from Proto-West Germanic *grāu, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁- (“to green, to grow”).

See also Dutch grauw, German grau, Old Norse grár); also Latin rāvus (“grey”), Old Church Slavonic зьрѭ (zĭrjǫ, “to see, to glance”), Russian зреть (zretʹ, “to watch, to look at”) (archaic), Lithuanian žeriù (“to shine”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: grā, IPA^(key): /ɡɹeɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪ
• Homophones: grey, greige

Adjective

gray (comparative grayer or more gray, superlative grayest or most gray)

1. Of a gray hue.
2. Dreary, gloomy.
   • 1980, Daniel C. Gerould, Stanisław I. Witkiewicz, The Beelzebub Sonata: Plays, Essays, Documents:

     the era of gray, boring banality and stagnation

3. Of an indistinct, disputed or uncertain quality.
4. Gray-haired.
5. Old.
   • 1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. ”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. , volume I, London: Edward Moxon , published 1839, →OCLC, page 206:

     Two hours, whose mighty circle did embrace
     More time than might make grey the infant world,
     Rolled thus, a weary and tumultuous space: […]

   • 2004, Betty Berzon, Permanent Partners: Building Gay & Lesbian Relationships That Last, page 20:

     In a subculture that idealizes youth, being gay and gray does not exactly make one a hot ticket. Older gays and lesbians often relegate themselves to separate and unequal meeting places.

6. Relating to older people.

   the gray dollar, i.e. the purchasing power of the elderly

   • February 8, 1800, Fisher Ames, Eulogy on Washington

     Gray experience listened to his counsels with respect, and, at a time when youth is almost privileged to be rash, Virginia committed the safety of her frontier, and ultimately the safety of America, not merely to his valor,—for that would be scarcely praise,—but to his prudence.

Usage notes

• In the early 20th century, an attempt was made to introduce an artificial distinction between gray and grey, with the former being used for a "mixture of white and blue", but the latter being used for a "mixture made by white and black"; this has not been generally adopted.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

gray (third-person singular simple present grays, present participle graying, simple past and past participle grayed)

1. To become gray.

   My hair is beginning to gray.

2. To cause to become gray.
3. (demography, slang) To turn progressively older, alluding to graying of hair through aging (used in context of the population of a geographic region)

   the graying of America

   • 2018 September 18, Amanda Kolson Hurley, “Fake Public Squares Are Coming to the Suburbs”, in The Atlantic‎:

     It’s not what advocates of retrofitting the suburbs may have had in mind, but it’s a logical outcome of the graying of America, and of suburbia in particular.

4. (transitive, photography) To give a soft effect to (a photograph) by covering the negative while printing with a ground-glass plate.

Translations

Noun

gray (plural grays)

1. An achromatic colour between black and white.

   grey:  

2. An animal or thing of grey colour, such as a horse, badger, or salmon.
3. A gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus.
   • 1971 Mar, National Geographic, page 411:

     Log-shaped barnacles become embedded in the hide of the gray.

4. (chiefly US, ufology) an extraterrestrial humanoid with grayish skin, bulbous black eyes, and an enlarged head.
5. (US, two-up) A penny with a tail on both sides, used for cheating.

Translations

See also

References

Etymology 2

Named after English physicist Louis Harold Gray (1905–1965).

Noun

gray (plural grays)

2. In the International System of Units, the derived unit of absorbed dose of radiation (radiation absorbed by a patient); one joule of energy absorbed per kilogram of the patient's mass. Symbol: Gy

   Coordinate term: rad

Derived terms

• kilogray

Translations

Further reading

• gray (unit) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Gary, Yarg, gyra, yarg

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

gray m inan

1. gray (unit of absorbed radiation)

Declension

Further reading

• gray in Akademický slovník cizích slov, 1995, at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz

Finnish

Etymology

From English gray.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡrei̯/,

Noun

gray

1. gray (SI unit)

Declension

Further reading

• “gray”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-02

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁɛj/

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

Noun

gray m (plural grays)

1. gray (SI unit)

Portuguese

Etymology 1

Noun

gray m (plural grays)

1. (physics) gray (SI unit of absorbed radiation)

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• grey

Noun

gray m (plural grays)

1. (ufology) gray (one of a race of evil, short extraterrestrial beings)

Swedish

Noun

gray c

1. gray (SI unit)