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PlainSpell

gray

/ɡɹeɪ/adjective, verb, noun

gray is spelled G-R-A-Y: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “gray vs grey” about 49,500 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, gray means “Of a color between black and white, having neutral hue and intermediate brightness” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in gray?

Letters4: G-R-A-Y
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing28 times per million words; the 3,288th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Same letters

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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is gray?

Gray appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th 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 gray?

  • /ɡɹeɪ/

Gray has one syllable (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-gray.ogg, En-uk-grey.ogg, En-us-grey.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with gray

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

gray vs grey49,500 G

Sounds like: grey (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with gray?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as gray.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: argy, yarg.

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 gray

  • grayer comparative
  • more gray comparative
  • grayest superlative
  • most gray superlative
  • grey
  • grays present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • graying participle, present
  • grayed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does gray mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    USOf a color between black and white, having neutral hue and intermediate brightness.

  2. 2

    USDreary, gloomy, cloudy.

  3. 3

    USOf indistinct, disputed or uncertain quality or acceptability.

  4. 4

    USGray-haired.

    I have already gone gray and lost my looks.

  5. 5

    USOld.

  6. 6

    USRelating to older people.

    the gray dollar

verb

  1. 1

    USTo turn gray.

    My hair is beginning to gray.

  2. 2

    USslangTo turn progressively older, alluding to graying of hair through aging (used in context of the population of a geographic region)

    the graying of America

  3. 3

    USTo give a soft effect to (a photograph) by covering the negative while printing with a ground-glass plate.

noun

  1. 1

    USAn achromatic colour between black and white.

  2. 2

    USA gray dye or pigment.

  3. 3

    USA pen, pencil, crayon, etc., made of gray pigment.

  4. 4

    USAn animal or thing of grey colour, such as a horse, badger, or salmon.

  5. 5

    USA gray wolf

  6. 6

    USA gray whale, Eschrichtius robustus.

  7. 7

    USSynonym of grey alien.

  8. 8

    USA penny with a tail on both sides, used for cheating.

  9. 9

    USIn the International System of Units, the derived unit of absorbed dose of radiation (radiation absorbed by a patient); one joule of energy absorbed per kilogram of the patient's mass.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate gray?

Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of gray: GRY, gry.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Gray in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchgris (of a color somewhere between white and black…), griser (to become gray), Gris (extraterrestrial being), gray (SI unit of absorbed radiation)
Germangrau (of a color somewhere between white and black…), ergrauen, grau werden (to become gray), Graue, Grauen (extraterrestrial being), Grau (colour)
Portuguesecinza, cinzento, gris (of a color somewhere between white and black…), acinzentar (to become gray), grey (extraterrestrial being), sombrio (dreary, gloomy)
Spanishgris (of a color somewhere between white and black…), encanecer (to become gray), grises (extraterrestrial being)

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 gray come from?

From Middle English gray, from Old English grǣġ (West Saxon). The spelling gray reflects the West Saxon vowel development, whereas the variant grey stems from the Anglian form grēġ (through Middle English grey). Further derived from Proto-West Germanic *grāu, from Proto-Germanic *grēwaz (“grey”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰreh₁- (“to green, to grow”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after gray