Greek

American  

[greek] / grik /

adjective

1. of or relating to Greece, the Greeks, or their language.

2. pertaining to the Greek Orthodox Church.

3. noting or pertaining to the alphabetic script derived from a Semitic form of writing, employing some letters that originally represented consonants for use as vowel sounds, which was used from about the beginning of the first millennium b.c. for the writing of Greek, and from which the Latin, Cyrillic, and other alphabets were derived.

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noun

1. a native or inhabitant of Greece.

2. the language of the ancient Greeks and any of the languages that have developed from it, as Hellenistic Greek, Biblical Greek, the Koine, and Modern Greek. Gk, Gk.

3. Informal. anything unintelligible, as speech, writing, etc..

   This contract is all Greek to me.

4. a member of the Greek Orthodox Church.

5. Hellenic.

6. a person who belongs to a Greek-letter fraternity or sorority.

7. Archaic: Usually Offensive. a cheater, especially one who cheats at cards.

Greek British  

/ ɡriːk /

noun

1. the official language of Greece, constituting the Hellenic branch of the Indo-European family of languages See Ancient Greek Late Greek Medieval Greek Modern Greek

2. a native or inhabitant of Greece or a descendant of such a native

3. a member of the Greek Orthodox Church

4. informal anything incomprehensible (esp in the phrase it's ( all ) Greek to me )

5. equals meet

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adjective

1. denoting, relating to, or characteristic of Greece, the Greeks, or the Greek language; Hellenic

2. of, relating to, or designating the Greek Orthodox Church

Sensitive Note

The noun Greek in its archaic meaning of “cheater” is usually perceived as insulting to or by Greeks.

Other Word Forms

• Greekdom noun
• Greekish adjective
• Greekness noun
• anti-Greek adjective
• half-Greek adjective
• non-Greek adjective
• pre-Greek adjective
• pro-Greek adjective
• pseudo-Greek adjective
• quasi-Greek adjective

Etymology

Origin of Greek

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English Grēcas (plural) from Latin Graecī “the Greeks” (nominative plural of Graecus ) from Greek Graikoí, plural of Graikós Greek

Example Sentences

These are two Europeans: Miriam, a deeply feeling, moody, beautiful Jewish-British painter with a mysterious past; and Donatello, an Italian Bacchus who closely resembles the ancient Greek sculptor Praxiteles’ “Faun.”

From The Wall Street Journal

I have friends who choke down Greek yogurt by the bucketful, who eat handfuls of grilled chicken at a time, who dead lift their own body weight.

From The Wall Street Journal

But tragedy, an exploration of human misery, dates back to the Greeks and expresses agonies as old as our species.

From The Wall Street Journal

Multitudes of mediums spoke spirit messages in Greek, Latin, Spanish, and French, languages the operators of the spiritual telegraph claimed not to know.

From Literature

Four people have been found guilty and given jail terms by a Greek court after a wiretapping scandal shook the country in 2022.

From BBC