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PlainSpell

grease

/ɡɹis/noun, verb

grease is spelled G-R-E-A-S-E: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.2 times per million words in written English, the 10,843rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, grease means “Animal fat in a melted or soft state” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of grease is greases.

How many letters and syllables are in grease?

Letters6: G-R-E-A-S-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing5.2 times per million words; the 10,843rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
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 grease?

Grease appears 5.2 times per million words in written English, the 10,843rd 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 grease?

  • US /ɡɹis/
  • UK /ɡɹiːs/

As a verb (“To put grease or fat on something, especially in order to…”): /ɡɹiːs/, /ɡɹis/, /ɡɹiz/.

Grease 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-grease.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with grease

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

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with grease?

9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as grease from its last stressed vowel (/is/):

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 grease

  • greases plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • greasing participle, present
  • greased participle, past

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

What does grease mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Animal fat in a melted or soft state.

  2. 2

    Any oily or fatty matter.

  3. 3

    Shorn but not yet cleansed wool.

  4. 4

    Inflammation of a horse's heels, also known as scratches or pastern dermatitis.

  5. 5

    slangMoney.

  6. 6

    datedslangSynonym of fat (“work containing much blank, profitable to the compositor”).

verb

  1. 1

    To put grease or fat on something, especially in order to lubricate.

  2. 2

    informalTo bribe.

  3. 3

    informalTo cause to go easily; to facilitate.

  4. 4

    slangTo perform a landing extraordinarily smoothly.

    To my amazement, I greased the landing despite the tricky crosswinds.

  5. 5

    slangTo kill.

  6. 6

    slangTo have sexual intercourse with.

  7. 7

    obsoleteTo cheat or cozen; to overreach.

  8. 8

    To affect (a horse) with grease, the disease.

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

Grease in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchgraisse (animal fat), graisser la patte, corrompre (to bribe), lubrifier (to perform a landing extraordinarily smoothly)
GermanFett (animal fat), bestechen (to bribe), Schmierfett, Schmiere (oily or fatty matter), schmieren (put grease or fat on something)
Portuguesegordura, graxa (animal fat), engraxar, untar (put grease or fat on something)
Spanishgrasa (animal fat), engrasar, impingar (disused) (put grease or fat on something)

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 grease come from?

From Middle English grece, from Anglo-Norman grece, from Vulgar Latin *crassia, noun derived from Latin crassus (“fat, thick”). Doublet of crass.

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

What to look up after grease