Gray vs Grey
Compare it Versus > Grammar > Difference between gray and grey, which is correct?
First published on 2nd of October 2015, updated on 3rd of January 2023
Edited by Mary S., secondary school English teacher
What is the colour between black and white called – grey or gray?
Both are acceptable.
And as you will find out, which form is to use is generally dependant on which part of the world you are in.
Read on to find out more.
Contents
Grey or gray?
While some might refer to it as ‘grey’, others would spell it as ‘gray’.
If you observe carefully, the difference often depends on whether you are in UK or North America/ USA.
In UK, ‘grey’ is the common parlance, but once you cross the Atlantic Ocean and touch American shores, ‘gray’ is what you would come across in terms of daily usage.
However, something that you would also discover is that both mean the same in spite of the variation in the way they are spelled, namely the colour which is neither black nor white.
Origin of the words
Although having originated from the same English word namely ‘grǣg’, ‘grey’ preceded ‘gray’ by about a century and since then both words have enjoyed a pretty equal degree of acceptance wherein people just take them as being two different spellings or versions of the word and ones that mean the same.
‘Grey’ was formulated during the early 18th century and accepted by the English speaking world at that time without any qualms.
About 100 years later, the year 1825 witnessed the birth of ‘gray’ in America and little did anyone realise at that time that the version was there to stay even until today.
Differences between grey and gray
So how do you distinguish between the two?
‘Grey’ is spelled with an ‘e’ and hence is indicative of the English form while ‘gray’ is spelled with ‘a’ and is associated with North America.
From this it follows that if you intend to use this word for a British audience, then you must spell it as ‘grey’ whereas anything that concerns America should use the version ‘gray’.
There are exceptions to this rule too. For example, the word ‘Grey’ in the name ‘Earl Grey’, a variety of tea, is spelled with an ‘e’ no matter where it is used. Likewise, ‘Greyhound’ is also always spelled with an ‘e’ irrespective of whether it is a breed of dog or a transport corporation that operates a nationwide network. ‘Grey’ as a proper noun (meaning the name of a person or brand for example) should also be spelled with an ‘e’ regardless of the part of the world in which it is being used.
On the other hand, ‘gray’ is used in science as a unit of measurement wherein ‘the gray’ represents how much of one joule of radiation energy is absorbed by a matter of mass one kilogram. The ‘a’ in the spelling is meant to remain as such and cannot be replaced by ‘e’ no matter where you are.
Popularity of the terms gray and grey online
When searching for the exact term “gray” on Google, the search engine returns about 1 billion results.
In comparison, searching for the exact term “grey” returns about 1.1 billion results.
This suggests both terms have a relatively same level of acceptance and use.
References
References used in the writing of this article
- Dictionary.com official web page, accessed in 2015 and January 2023, link to dictionary home page here
- Greyhound official business page
- Earl Gray Tea Wikipedia page, accessed January 2023
- Oxford English Dictionary, accessed in December 2022, link to Oxford page
- Google search engine for popularity of search terms, search completed in December 2022 and January 2023