gravy
/ˈɡɹeɪvi/noun, verb
gravy is spelled G-R-A-V-Y: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,368th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, gravy means “A dark savoury sauce prepared from stock and usually meat juices; brown gravy” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of gravy is gravies.
How many letters and syllables are in gravy?
| Letters | 5: G-R-A-V-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.0 times per million words; the 15,368th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 gravy?
Gravy appears 3.0 times per million words in written English, the 15,368th 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 gravy?
- US /ˈɡɹeɪvi/
- British /ˈɡɹɛjvɪj/
- Australia /ˈɡɹæɪvi/
Gravy has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-gravy.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with gravy?
One word on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as gravy from its last stressed vowel (/eɪvi/):
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 gravy
- gravies plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- gravying participle, present
- gravied participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does gravy mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A dark savoury sauce prepared from stock and usually meat juices; brown gravy.
A roast dinner isn't complete without gravy.
- 2
A pale sauce prepared from a roux with meat fat; a type of béchamel sauce.
There are few foods more Southern than biscuits and gravy.
- 3
Sauce used for pasta.
- 4
IndiaCurry sauce.
Now it seems that Pa Senik was a little deaf. Awang noticed that his father-in-law sometimes poured the gravy of his curry on his rice and that sometimes he sucked it up.
- 5
informalUnearned gain; extra benefit.
The first thousand tickets and the concessions cover the venue and the band. The rest is gravy.
verb
- 1
To make gravy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Gravy in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | jus de viande, sauce au jus, sauce de viande, sauce brune , profit, bénéfice |
| German | Soße, Bratensoße |
| Portuguese | molho |
| Spanish | salsa, gravy, grevi, greve |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does gravy come from?
From Middle English gravey, greavie, gravy; probably from greaves, graves (“the sediment of melted tallow”), or from Old French grave, a claimed misspelling of grané (“stew, spice”), from grain (“spice”). Sense of "pasta sauce" apparently seems to be from Italian dialect, especially Calabrian, differentiating tomato puree (salsa (“sauce”)) from cooked tomato sauce (sugo).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).