Word: Gray

Pronunciation

/ɡreɪ/

Definitions

• Noun: A neutral or achromatic color between white and black, often described as a dull, light, or medium shade of this color. For example: “The artist mixed several shades of gray for the painting’s background.”
• Adjective: Having the color gray; of or relating to the color gray. For example: “Her hair had turned gray with age.”

Usage as Noun

• Noun: “The(gray) clouds promised rain.”
• Noun (in a metaphorical sense): “In the moral gray area, decisions aren’t always clear-cut.”

Usage as Adjective

• Adjective: “The elephant was covered in patches of gray skin.”
• Adjective (in a metaphorical sense): “Life isn’t just black and white; it has many shades of gray.”

Phrases

• “Gray matter”: Refers to the dark, soft tissue of the brain and spinal cord, consisting mainly of nerve cells.
• “Gray area”: An undefined situation where a decision or action is not clearly right or wrong.
• “A fifty-fifty chance”: Meaning a probability of something happening or not, like flipping a coin where heads or tails are represented by equal amounts of gray.

Example Sentences

• Noun: “The stormy sky was a deep, foreboding gray.”
• Adjective: “His once black hair now had streaks of gray running through it.”

Synonyms

• Grey (British English)
• Silver
• Ashen
• Charcoal
• Pewter
• Slate (color)