gray
adjective
of a color between white and black; having a neutral hue.
gray
1 American
[grey]
/ greɪ /
especially British,
grey
adjective
-
grayer,
comparative
-
grayest
superlative
-
of a color between white and black; having a neutral hue.
-
dark, dismal, or gloomy.
gray skies.
-
dull, dreary, or monotonous.
-
having gray hair; gray-headed.
-
pertaining to old age; mature.
-
Informal. pertaining to, involving, or composed of older persons.
gray households.
-
old or ancient.
-
indeterminate and intermediate in character.
The tax audit concentrated on deductions in the gray area between purely personal and purely business expenses.
noun
-
any achromatic color; any color with zero chroma, intermediate between white and black.
-
something of this color.
-
gray material or clothing.
to dress in gray.
-
an unbleached and undyed condition.
-
(often initial capital letter) a member of the Confederate army in the American Civil War or the army itself.
-
a horse of a gray color.
-
a horse that appears white but is not an albino.
verb (used with or without object)
-
grays,
present (3rd person singular)
-
grayed,
past participle, past
-
graying
present participle
gray
2
American
[grey]
/ greɪ /
noun
Physics.
Gray
3
American
[grey]
/ greɪ /
noun
-
Asa 1810–88, U.S. botanist.
-
Robert, 1755–1806, U.S. explorer and sea captain: discovered the Columbia River.
-
Thomas, 1716–71, English poet.
gray
1
British
/ ɡreɪ /
adjective
gray
2
British
/ ɡreɪ /
noun
Gray
3
British
/ ɡreɪ /
noun
gray
Scientific
/ grā /
gray
Idioms
Usage
What’s the difference between gray and grey? Gray and grey are simply different spellings of the same word, which refers to the color halfway between black and white (among other more figurative meanings). In popular use, the two spellings are used interchangeably, though one spelling is often preferred in many places. The spelling gray is much more common in American English, while grey is more common in British English. Remember: spell gray with an a in America, and spell grey with an e in England (among other places). Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between gray and grey.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
graysimple
-
grayssimple
-
have grayedperfect
-
has grayedperfect
-
am grayingprogressive
-
are grayingprogressive
-
is grayingprogressive
-
have been grayingperfect progressive
-
has been grayingperfect progressive
Past
-
grayedsimple
-
had grayedperfect
-
was grayingprogressive
-
were grayingprogressive
-
had been grayingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gray1
First recorded before 900; Middle English grei, grai, Old English grǣg, grēg; cognate with German grau, Old Norse grār
Origin of gray2
First recorded in 1975; named in honor of Louis Harold Gray (1905–65), English radiobiologist
Explanation
Because the color gray is between black and white — actually a mix of the two — it is often used to denote something dull or monotonous. When the sun comes out after a long stretch of gray days, you suddenly feel alive again. Everybody to the beach! You might feel old when you see your gray hairs, but I think they make you look wise and distinguished. Because gray is dull and indistinct, you can refer to something not quite clear as being "in a gray area." You often find some gray area between right and wrong . . . especially when you are accused of doing something wrong. Don’t worry about the British spelling "grey": it’s interchangeable with the American English spelling.
Vocabulary lists containing gray
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
These letters haven’t been issued since the Civil War, but the parallel is obvious and creates shades of gray that could present major problems.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
Bill Hays—taut, with a neatly trimmed gray horseshoe hairline—sat behind the counter and immediately clocked me as a journalist, not some casual shopper.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2026
This all seemed awful at the time but, given the plagues of in-game hosts and teams sporting jerseys in colors far beyond home white and road gray, perhaps Disney was just ahead of its time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
The seven-sided abode features an interior court, private balconies, a catering-style kitchen with light gray cabinets and a dining nook, and a living room accompanied by glass walls and light-wood floors.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
On tables between them were piles of woolen socks in army gray.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
"Twelve percent of all of the UK's strategic road network is in the highest risk zone for flooding, and 20 percent of the rail network is," Gray said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
“They deepened my respect for all wildlife, not just bald eagles, and reminded me that we, as humans, must do more to protect wildlife habitats around the world,” South Pasadena’s Annette Gray said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Last month, employers announced more than 33,000 layoffs, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
Born with sickle-cell disease, Ms. Gray had spent much of her life in emergency rooms riding out bouts of pain.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Gray laid his cheek on his paws, and before Pax had even finished cleaning his wound again, he was asleep.
From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker
If McIlroy’s not the face of golf, he is undeniably its statesman, a little grayer and wiser than a champion his age should be.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026
His hair is grayer than when we last met more than a decade ago.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2024
Marcus Mariota’s hair is grayer now than when he entered the NFL as a highly touted prospect and a potential face of a franchise.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 14, 2024
That book examined the phenomenon of exiles — “not the gory amputation of refugee flight,” Mr. Eder wrote, “but arrival’s grayer course of tissue rejection.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 28, 2023
He was thinner, balder, and grayer, and his face had a crumpled look.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
Presumably the same is true of the grayest day.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2023
More than 1 in 5 people are over 65, a rate on par with some of the world’s grayest nations.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2023
It makes a great coffee table book, one that can help inspire on even the grayest of days.
From The Verge ● Apr. 28, 2022
Even during the grayest of winter months, there is plenty of green, and pops of color and beauty around the region in arboretums and botanical gardens.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 8, 2022
All through the winter, too, its yellow twigs give it a sunny aspect, which is not without a cheering influence even in the grayest and gloomiest day.
From Buds and Bird Voices (From "Mosses from an Old Manse") by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The biggest problem involved the neutral axis, the line of grays that runs from black to white.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 7, 2026
Every now and then, Apple sets aside its palette of austere silvers and grays, using both color and lower price points to appeal to a broader, mostly younger, audience.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026
The broker had staged the house with attractive furniture in taupes and grays.
From Slate ● Mar. 6, 2025
She occasionally paints in acrylic directly onto acoustic panels, sometimes in muted grays and whites that very nearly appear to blend into the wall.
From New York Times ● May 10, 2024
White was fading away to expose the grays and browns that had been hidden beneath.
From "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown
In the distance, somewhat grayed by atmospheric haze, are the smokestacks and cooling tower of the power plant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
Despite aggressive debridement — daily surgical scrapings of her wounds to clean out the infection — and expensive medications, the tissues in her leg grayed at the edges.
From New York Times ● Nov. 26, 2024
In one arresting work, attic wainscoting is a series of vertical black rectangles lined up one after the next against grayed ground.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2023
The fire department noted that the large amounts of logs and brush inside the landfill helped produce the prodigious plumes of smoke that further grayed out the sky well into Tuesday.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 6, 2023
A bolt of white heat hit her and she grayed, then dissipated into the air.
From "The Kill Order (Maze Runner, Book Four; Origin)" by James Dashner
My rapidly thinning, gradually graying hair tells me that I’m not the man I was two decades ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 8, 2026
Kansas City Federal Reserve President Jeff Schmid has found a silver lining in America’s graying demographics: All of those extra visits to the doctor are good for the economy.
From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026
The fine arts have long struggled with a so-called graying audience, and have moved mountains to innovate in ways that keep the genres fresh in order to attract younger, excitable crowds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 9, 2026
His black turban, clerical robes and graying beard composed the picture that adorned offices, walls and billboards across the country.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 1, 2026
“Yes and no. And no and yes,” I say as I kneel behind her on the bed, parting the thin, graying strands of her hair.
From "American Street" by Ibi Zoboi
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
