great

From Middle English greet (“great, large”), from Old English grēat (“big, thick, coarse, stour, massive”), from Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“big in size, coarse, coarse grained”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewd-, *gʰer- (“to rub, grind, remove”). Cognate with Scots great (“coarse in grain or texture, thick, great”), West Frisian grut (“large, great”), Dutch groot (“large, stour”), German groß (“large”), Old English grēot (“earth, sand, grit”). Related to grit.

• enPR: grāt, IPA^(key): /ɡɹeɪt/

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• Rhymes: -eɪt
• Homophone: grate

great (comparative greater, superlative greatest)

1. Relatively large in scale, size, extent, number (i. e. having many parts or members) or duration (i. e. relatively long); very big.

   A great storm is approaching our shores.

   a great assembly

   a great wait

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎:

     “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like // Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. […]”

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess‎:

     ‘Children crawled over each other like little grey worms in the gutters,’ he said. ‘The only red things about them were their buttocks and they were raw. Their faces looked as if snails had slimed on them and their mothers were like great sick beasts whose byres had never been cleared. […]’

   • 2013 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 18:

     Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe. Some call it geoeconomics, but it's geopolitics too. The current power play consists of an extraordinary range of countries simultaneously sitting down to negotiate big free trade and investment agreements.

2. Of larger size or more importance than others of its kind.

   the great auk

   • Bible, Book Daniel ii. 48

     So the King made Daniel a great man […]

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     He doth object I am too great of birth.

3. (qualifying nouns of family relationship) Involving more generations than the word qualified implies (from 1510s). [see Derived terms]

   great-grandfather

4. (obsolete, postpositive, followed by 'with') Pregnant; large with young; full of.

   great with child

   great with hope

   • Bible, Psalms lxxviii. 71

     the ewes great with young

5. (obsolete, except with 'friend' and similar words such as 'mate','buddy') Intimate; familiar.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon

     those that are so great with him

6. Extreme or more than usual.

   great worry

7. Of significant importance or consequence; important.

   a great decision

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0088:

     “We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?”

8. (applied to actions, thoughts and feelings) Arising from or possessing idealism; admirable; superior; commanding; heroic; illustrious; eminent.

   a great deed

   a great nature

   a great history

9. Impressive or striking.

   a great show of wealth

10. Much in use; favoured.

    Poetry was a great convention of the Romantic era.

11. (applied to persons) Endowed with extraordinary powers; of exceptional talents or achievements; uncommonly gifted; able to accomplish vast results; remarkable; strong; powerful; mighty; noble.

    a great hero, scholar, genius, philosopher, writer etc.

12. Title referring to an important leader.

    Alexander the Great

13. Doing or exemplifying (a characteristic or pursuit) on a large scale; active or enthusiastic.

    What a great buffoon!

    He's not a great one for reading.

    a great walker

14. (often followed by 'at') Skilful or adroit.

    a great carpenter

    You are great at singing.

15. (informal) Very good; excellent; wonderful; fantastic (from 1848).

    Dinner was great.

    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

      He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.

16. (informal, Britain) Intensifying a word or expression, used in mild oaths.

    a dirty great smack in the face

    Great Scott!

In simple situations, using modifiers of intensity such as fairly, somewhat, etc. can lead to an awkward construction, with the exception of certain common expressions such as “so great” and “really great”. In particular “very great” is unusually strong as a reaction, and in many cases “great” or its meaning of “very good” will suffice.

• See also Thesaurus:large
• See also Thesaurus:excellent

• (very big, large scale): tiny
• (uncommonly gifted): mediocre, ordinary

• → Welsh: grêt

great

1. Expression of gladness and content about something.

   Great! Thanks for the wonderful work.

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     I am in my new apartment! Great!

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2. sarcastic inversion thereof.

   Oh, great! I just dumped all 500 sheets of the manuscript all over and now I have to put them back in order.

great (plural greats)

1. A person of major significance, accomplishment or acclaim.

   Newton and Einstein are two of the greats of the history of science.

   • 2019, Daniel Taylor, Lionel Messi magic puts Barcelona in command of semi-final with Liverpool (in The Guardian, 1 May 2019)

     Sadio Mané wasted a glorious chance in the first half and, late on, Mohamed Salah turned his shot against a post after a goal-line clearance had spun his way. That, in a nutshell, perhaps sums up the difference between Messi and the players on the next rung below – the ones who can be described as great footballers without necessarily being football greats.

2. (music) The main division in a pipe organ, usually the loudest division.

• (person of major significance, accomplishment or acclaim): mediocre

great (not comparable)

1. very well (in a very satisfactory manner)

   Those mechanical colored pencils work great because they don't have to be sharpened.

• 'Gater, Greta, ergat-, grate, retag, targe, terga

From Proto-Germanic *grautaz (“big in size, coarse, coarse grained”), from Proto-Indo-European *ghrewə- (“to fell, put down, fall in”). Cognate with Old Saxon grōt (“large, thick, coarse, stour”), Old High German grōz (“large, thick, coarse”), Old English grot (“particle”). More at groat.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡræːɑt/

grēat

1. great, massive
2. tall
3. thick; stout
4. coarse

• grēatnes

• Middle English: greet, grete
  • English: great
    • → Welsh: grêt
  • Scots: great, greet, grete, greit

• greet, grete, greit

From Old English grēat, from Proto-Germanic *grautaz.

• IPA^(key): [ɡrɛt], [ɡrɪt]
• (North Northern Scots) IPA^(key): [ɡrit]

great (comparative greater, superlative greatest)

1. great
2. coarse (in grain or texture)
3. (of things) thick, bulky, roomy
4. (of people) big, stout
5. (of a river) swollen with rain, in flood
6. (of the sea) high, stormy
7. intimate, friendly