# grave

> English word · Noun · IPA /ɡɹeɪv/ · frequency rank #4,239

## Definitions
1. An excavation in the earth as a place of burial.
2. Any place of interment.
3. Any place containing one or more corpses.
4. Death, destruction.
5. Deceased people; the dead.

## Etymology
From Middle English grave, grafe, from Old English græf, grafu (“cave, grave, trench”), from Proto-West Germanic *grab, from Proto-Germanic *grabą, *grabō (“grave, trench, ditch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, scratch, scrape”). Cognate with West Frisian grêf (“grave”), Dutch graf (“grave”), Low German Graf (“a grave”), Graff, German Grab (“grave”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian grav (“grave”), Icelandic gröf (“grave”). Related to groove.

## Easily confused with
- **GRE** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-gre)
- **gray** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-gray)
- **grove** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-grove)
- **gravy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-gravy)
- **grime** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-grime)
- **graze** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-graze)
- **grays** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-grays)
- **gripe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-gripe)
- **grope** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-grope)
- **guava** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-guava)
- **graves** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-graves)
- **groove** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-groove)
- **grease** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-grease)
- **gravel** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-gravel)
- **groves** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-groves)
- **grieve** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-grieve)
- **Grover** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-grover)
- **grazed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-grazed)
- **gravely** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-gravely)
- **greaves** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/grave-vs-greaves)

## Common misspellings (7)
`garve`, `ggrave`, `graev`, `gravve`, `grrave`, `grvae`, `rgave`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/grave