Great or greet?
great is an adjective meaning “Taking much space; large”; greet is a verb meaning “To welcome in a friendly manner, either in person or through another means such…”. Use great as an adjective and greet as a verb. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) great is about 141 times as common as greet.
What is the difference between great and greet?
| great | greet | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, interjection, noun, adverb, prefix | verb, adjective, noun |
| Meaning | Taking much space; large Much, more than usual Expression of gladness and content about something | To welcome in a friendly manner, either in person or through another means such as writing To arrive at or reach, or meet Great |
| Example | great worry | A brilliant dawn greeted her eyes as she looked out of the window |
| Forms | greater, greatest | greets, greeting, greeted greets, greeting, greeted, grat, grutten |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɡɹeɪt/ /ˈɡɹɛjt/ /ˈɡɹæɪt/ | /ɡɹiːt/ |
| In writing | 759 times per million words | 5.4 times per million words |
Sources: great and greet in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of great and greet
great
- 1
Taking much space; large
- 2
Expression of gladness and content about something
Great! Thanks for the wonderful work
- 3
A person of major significance, accomplishment or acclaim
Newton and Einstein are two of the greats of the history of science
- 4
informalVery well (in a very satisfactory manner)
Those mechanical colored pencils work great because they don’t have to be sharpened
- 5
With familial designations, used to denote a removal of one generation
great-uncle (an uncle of one's mother or father)
- 6
Much, more than usual
great worry
- 7
A sarcastic inversion thereof
Oh, great! I just dumped all 500 sheets of the manuscript all over and now I have to put them back in order
- 8
The main division in a pipe organ, usually the loudest division
greet
- 1
To welcome in a friendly manner, either in person or through another means such as writing
- 2
Great
- 3
ScotlandTo weep; to cry
- 4
To arrive at or reach, or meet
- 5
To accost; to address
- 6
To be perceived by (someone)
A brilliant dawn greeted her eyes as she looked out of the window
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, great or greet?
great appears 759 times per million words; greet 5.4 times per million words.
great 759 times per million wordsgreet 5.4 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).