greet
/ɡɹiːt/verb, adjective
greet is spelled G-R-E-E-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.4 times per million words in written English, the 10,680th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, greet means “To welcome in a friendly manner, either in person or through another means such as writing” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in greet?
| Letters | 5: G-R-E-E-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.4 times per million words; the 10,680th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| 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 greet?
Greet appears 5.4 times per million words in written English, the 10,680th 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 greet?
- /ɡɹiːt/
Greet 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-greet.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with greet
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with greet?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as greet.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: egret.
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 greet
- greets present, singular, he/she/it
- greeting participle, present
- greeted participle, past
- more greet comparative
- most greet superlative
- grat participle, past
- grutten participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does greet mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To welcome in a friendly manner, either in person or through another means such as writing.
- 2
To arrive at or reach, or meet.
- 3
To accost; to address.
- 4
archaicTo meet and give salutations.
- 5
To be perceived by (someone).
A brilliant dawn greeted her eyes as she looked out of the window.
- 6
ScotlandTo weep; to cry.
adjective
- 1
Great.
noun
- 1
obsoleteMourning, weeping, lamentation.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Greet in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense to address with salutations or expressions of kind wishes:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | saluer, recevoir |
| German | begrüßen, grüßen |
| Portuguese | saudar, cumprimentar |
| Spanish | saludar |
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 greet come from?
From Middle English greten, from Old English grētan, from Proto-West Germanic *grōtijan, from Proto-Germanic *grōtijaną.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).