persona grata

[ per-soh-nah grah-tah; English per-soh-nuh-grah-tuh, grey-tuh, grat-uh ]
See synonyms for persona grata on Thesaurus.com
noun,plural per·so·nae gra·tae [per-soh-nahy grah-tahy; English per-soh-nee grah-tee, grey-, grat-ee]. /pɛrˈsoʊ naɪ ˈgrɑ taɪ; English pərˈsoʊ ni ˈgrɑ ti, ˈgreɪ-, ˈgræt i/. Latin.
  1. an acceptable person, especially a diplomatic representative acceptable to the government to which they are accredited.: Compare persona non grata.

Origin of persona grata

1
First recorded in 1850–55

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use persona grata in a sentence

  • To make my position more intolerable, I am persona non grata with both sides.

  • Our witness, in any case, would not be a persona grata to the Society for Psychical Research.

    Devil-Worship in France | Arthur Edward Waite
  • Burleigh was evidently persona non grata in the eyes of both.

    Warrior Gap | Charles King
  • I may have been persona non grata, but, if so, she did not express her feeling.

    Birds of the Rockies | Leander Sylvester Keyser
  • Seeing that I would henceforth be persona non grata at the palace, I sought obscurity in the writing and publication of books.

British Dictionary definitions for persona grata

persona grata

/ Latin (pɜːˈsəʊnə ˈɡrɑːtə) /


nounplural personae gratae (pɜːˈsəʊniː ˈɡrɑːtiː)
  1. an acceptable person, esp a diplomat acceptable to the government of the country to which he or she is sent

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012