grey-haired

adj

"grey-haired" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“grey-haired” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
11
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Having grey hair.

Corpus desk

Index EN-grey-haired · grey-haired · English

grey-haired · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "G" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for grey-haired
PropertyValue
Headwordgrey-haired
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters11
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “grey-haired” in English

grey-hairedranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

grey-haired is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

grey-haired has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Etymologically, the entry records: From grey + haired. The correct English form is grey-haired, spelled G-R-E-Y---H-A-I-R-E-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Having grey hair.
  2. 2
    Old, wise, experienced.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how grey-haired appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Now, I'm a grey-haired git with a sense of arrogance born of surviving this long in RAIL.

Etymology

From grey + haired.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "grey-haired"?
"grey-haired" is spelled G-R-E-Y---H-A-I-R-E-D.
What does "grey-haired" mean?
As an adjective, "grey-haired" means: Having grey hair.
What is the origin of the word "grey-haired"?
From grey + haired. See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list