# grey
## English
### Alternative forms

* gray (often used in the US)

### Etymology

From Middle English grey, from Old English grǣġ, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz (compare Dutch grauw, German grau, Old Norse grár), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁- (“to green, to grow”) (compare 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: /ɡɹeɪ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (UK):(file)
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (Canada):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪ

### Adjective

grey (comparative greyer or more grey, superlative greyest or most grey)
* British and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
** 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:These grey and dun colors may be also produced by mixing whites and blacks.
** 1954 August, H. M. Madgwick, “The Blaenau Festiniog Tunnel”, in Railway Magazine, page 569:This is itself a cheerless spot, particularly on a rainy day, when, overshadowed by the great massif of rock that towers in the background, and surrounded by the grey and cheerless quarries, it has a depressing character much in contrast with the green verdure encountered on the northern end of this interesting branch line.
* (South Africa, slang) Synonym of coloured (pertaining to the mixed race of black and white).

#### Derived terms

* all cats are grey at night
* all cats are grey by night
* all cats are grey in the dark
* ash grey
* ash-grey
* battleship grey
* battleship-grey
* blue-grey
* brain grey
* cadet grey
* code grey
* cool grey
* dove grey
* eastern grey kangaroo
* French grey
* get grey hair from
* give grey hair to
* give someone grey hair
* great grey owl
* great grey shrike
* grey alder
* grey alien
* grey amber
* grey ammonia
* grey area
* greyback
* grey-backed fiscal
* greybeard
* grey belt
* grey-blue
* greyboard
* greybody
* grey box
* grey-box testing
* grey-capped greenfinch
* grey cells
* grey-chested babbler
* grey club-rush
* grey-collar
* grey corkwood
* grey crested tit
* grey crow
* grey crowned crane
* grey eminence
* greyen
* greyer
* greyers
* greyest
* greyey
* grey folk
* grey francolin
* greyfriar
* grey friar
* grey ghost
* Greygler
* grey gold
* grey goo
* grey gum
* grey-haired
* grey hat
* greyhead
* grey-headed
* grey-headed bunting
* grey-headed chickadee
* grey-headed woodpecker
* grey hen
* grey heron
* grey-hooded attila
* grey-hooded bunting
* greyhound
* grey hydrogen
* greyish
* greyishly
* grey jay
* grey junglefowl
* greylag
* greylead
* grey-legged tinamou
* grey line
* greyline
* greylist
* grey literature
* greyly
* grey magic
* grey magick
* grey market
* grey marketeer
* grey matter
* grey mullet
* greymuzzle
* greynaissance
* grey-necked bunting
* grey-necked wood rail
* greyness
* grey night
* grey noddy
* grey noise
* grey nomad
* grey nurse
* grey nurse shark
* grey out
* grey ox
* grey partridge
* grey platelet syndrome
* grey plover
* grey pound
* grey power
* grey rape
* grey red-backed vole
* grey reef shark
* grey rhea
* grey rocking
* grey rock method
* greyscale
* grey-scale
* grey scale
* greyschist
* grey seal
* greystone
* grey-tailed tattler
* grey teal
* grey ternlet
* grey-throated rail
* grey tinamou
* grey tit
* Grey Tribe
* grey wagtail
* grey warbler
* greyware
* greywater
* grey water
* greywether
* grey whale
* grey-winged trumpeter
* grey wolf
* grey zorro
* gunmetal-grey
* gunmetal grey
* lesser grey shrike
* military grey
* nongrey
* Patagonian grey fox
* Payne's grey
* pearl grey
* pink and grey cockatoo
* pinko-grey
* silver-grey
* slate grey
* South American grey fox
* the fox may grow grey but never good
* the grey mare is the better horse
* ungrey
* western grey kangaroo
* wolf-grey

#### Translations
### Verb

grey (third-person singular simple present greys, present participle greying, simple past and past participle greyed)
* British and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
** 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 18, in Klee Wyck‎:Now only a few hand-hewn cedar planks and roof beams remained, moss-grown and sagging—a few totem poles, greyed and split.

### Noun

grey (plural greys)
* British and Commonwealth standard spelling of gray.
** 1810, Walter Scott, “(please specify the canto number or page)”, in The Lady of the Lake; […], Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for John Ballantyne and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, and William Miller, →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day, / That costs thy life, my gallant grey.
** 1833, Sporting Magazine, volume 6, page 400:Pioneer seemed now to have the game in his own hands; but the Captain, by taking two desperate leaps, cut off a corner, by which he regained the ground he had lost by the fall, and was up with the grey the remainder of the chase.

#### See also

* greys
Colors/Colours in English (layout · text) :
| red | orange | yellow | green | blue (incl. indigo; cyan, teal, turquoise) | purple / violet |
| pink (including magenta) | brown | | white | gray/grey | black |

### References

* ↑ 2001, Charlotte Spinks, A New Apartheid? Urban Spatiality, (Fear of) Crime, and Segregation; in Cape Town, South Africa, Destin Development Studies Institute, ISSN 1470-2320

### Anagrams

* -ergy, gyre

## Icelandic
### Etymology

From Old Norse grey, from Proto-Germanic *grawją, cognate with Faroese groyggj.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kreiː/
* Rhymes: -eiː

### Noun

grey n (genitive singular greys, nominative plural grey)
* (archaic) bitch (female dog)
* wretch
* pitiful person, poor thing
    Greyið mitt!You poor little thing!
    Greyið JónPoor John

#### References

* Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989) Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, →ISBN (Available at Málið.is under the “Eldri orðabækur” tab.)
* Kristín Bjarnadóttir, editor (2002–2025), “grey”, in Beygingarlýsing íslensks nútímamáls [The Database of Modern Icelandic Inflection] (in Icelandic), Reykjavík: The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
* Mörður Árnason (2019) Íslensk orðabók, 5th edition, Reykjavík: Forlagið
* “grey” in the Dictionary of Modern Icelandic (in Icelandic) and ISLEX (in the Nordic languages)

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* grei, gray, grai, greye, gry, græi, gro, gra, greȝe, greiȝe

### Etymology

From Old English grǣġ, from Proto-West Germanic *grāu, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɡræi̯/
* Rhymes: -æi̯

### Adjective

grey (plural and weak singular greye)
* grey, dull, drab (in color)
* glinting, glistening

#### Descendants

* English: gray, grey
* Scots: gray
* Yola: gry

#### References

* “grei, adj. & n..”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.

### Noun

grey
* grey (colour)
* Fur of the grey squirrel
* grey clothes
* grey textiles
* An elderly man
* A badger

#### Descendants

* English: gray, grey
* Scots: gray
* Yola: gry

#### References

* “grei, adj. & n..”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.
* “grei, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.
* “grei, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-30.

### See also

Colors in Middle English · coloures, hewes (layout · text) :
| whit | grey, hor | blak |
| red; cremesyn, gernet | citrine, aumbre; broun, tawne | yelow, dorry, gul; canevas |
| grasgrene | grene | |
| plunket; ewage | asure, livid | blewe, blo, pers |
| violet; inde | rose, murrey; purpel, purpur | claret |

## Portuguese
### Noun

grey m (plural greys)
* Alternative form of gray (race of extraterrestrials)

## Spanish
### Etymology

Inherited from Old Spanish grey, from Latin gregem, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ger- (“to assemble, gather together”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈɡɾei/ [ˈɡɾei̯]
* Rhymes: -ei
* Syllabification: grey

### Noun

grey f (plural greyes)
* (obsolete, poetic) flock, herd
    Synonyms: rebaño, rehala
* (religion) flock (people served by a pastor, priest, etc., also all believers in a church or religion)
    Synonyms: rebaño, feligresía, congregación, iglesia
** 1877, Benito Pérez Galdós, Gloria:toda la grey díscola y ladina de aquellas verdes montañasthe whole rebellious and cunning flock from those green mountains

#### Derived terms

* agregar
* gregario

#### Related terms

* cabra
* oveja

#### See also

* (animals): ganado, hato, parvada, manada, jauría, cardumen, enjambre

### Further reading

* “grey”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10
* Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1984) “grey”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critical Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume III (G–Ma), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 208