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

• Greeks
  plural

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

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• Greeks
  plural

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

See Examples For:

Greek Greeks

But I've heard some amazing things about our Greek players Charalampos Kostoulas and Stefanos Tzimas, who we did not see much of last season.

From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026

The observatory warned people to expect limited parking and congested traffic due to a show scheduled for that night at the Greek Theatre.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

Her husky voice is familiar to pilots in Greek skies -- as are her outbursts.

From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026

Together they read and discuss some of their absent host’s collection of Greek and Latin classics, including Seneca’s “Trojan Women” and Ovid’s “Metamorphoses.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

The two ships and their crews had left the sponging waters in mid-April and were now sailing in a channel between the Greek islands of Antikythera and Crete.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

“Like the Greeks, Ibsen uses the family as an image of society,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

Ankara recently complained about Athens shutting down Turkish-language schools, a move the Greeks blamed on declining pupil numbers.

From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026

He reorganized his force, then began to lead the Greeks northward following paths they hoped would lead toward the Black Sea, nearly 1,000 miles distant.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026

Their story remains because the ancient Greeks — and then the ancient Romans, Romanoi Byzantines, Renaissance Dutch and now, an English director and a Kenyan actress — all decided the story belonged to them.

From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026

The Greeks had inherited their numbers from the geometric Egyptians.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife