gley
/ɡleɪ/noun, verb
gley is spelled G-L-E-Y: 4 letters. It appears about once in every 87 million words in written English, the 297,763rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, gley means “A type of hydric soil, sticky, greenish-blue-grey in colour and low in oxygen” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gley is gleys.
How many letters and syllables are in gley?
| Letters | 4: G-L-E-Y |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 87 million words; the 297,763rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is gley?
Gley appears about once in every 87 million words in written English, the 297,763rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce gley?
- /ɡleɪ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-gley.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with gley?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as gley.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: gyle.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of gley
- gleys plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- glei
- gleying participle, present
- gleyed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does gley mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A type of hydric soil, sticky, greenish-blue-grey in colour and low in oxygen.
verb
- 1
To be converted into this kind of soil.
- 2
ScotlandTo squint; to look obliquely; to overlook things.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does gley come from?
1920s, from Ukrainian ґлей (glej, “clayey soil”), from Proto-Slavic *glьjь, from Proto-Indo-European *gl̥h₁y-ó-s, from Proto-Indo-European *gleh₁y-. Cognate of clay.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).