different between ebony vs gray

English

Etymology

From earlier hebeny, from Middle English ebenif, hebenyf (influenced by Late Latin hebeninus), from Ecclesiastical Latin ebenius (“of ebony”), from Latin hebenus (“ebon tree”), from Ancient Greek ?????? (ébenos), from Egyptian hbnj,

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /??b.?n.i/

Noun

ebony (usually uncountable, plural ebonies)

1. (uncountable) A hard, dense, deep black wood from various subtropical and tropical trees, especially of the genus Diospyros.
2. (countable) A tree that yields such wood.
3. (countable and uncountable) A deep, dark black colour.

4. (slang, countable) A black key on a piano or other keyboard instrument.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Adjective

ebony (comparative more ebony, superlative most ebony)

1. Made of ebony wood.
2. A deep, dark black colour.
3. Dark-skinned; black; especially in reference to African-Americans.
   • 2004, "Alyssa", Ebony Girls Need Attention (on newsgroup alt.sex.escorts)

     Want to watch my gorgeous ebony friend, Almond Joy, naked and online 24/7? She recently ended a long-term relationship and is now fully enjoying being a 25 year-old single gal in Beverly Hills.

Translations

See also

• calamander
• cocuswood
• tendu
• Appendix:Colors

Further reading

• ebony on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Boney, Boyne, Bynoe, boney

English

Alternative forms

• grey (used in the UK and the Commonwealth and also in the US)

Etymology 1

From grey.

Pronunciation

• enPR: gr?, IPA^(key): /??e?/
• Rhymes: -e?
• Homophones: grey, greige

Adjective

gray (comparative grayer or more gray, superlative grayest or most gray)

1. Having a color somewhere between white and black, as the ash of an ember.
2. Dreary, gloomy.
   • 1980, Daniel C. Gerould, Stanis?aw I. Witkiewicz, The Beelzebub Sonata: Plays, Essays, Documents

     the era of gray, boring banality and stagnation

3. Having an indistinct, disputed or uncertain quality.
4. Relating to older people.
   • February 8, 1800, Fisher Ames, Eulogy on Washington

     gray experience

   • 2004, Betty Berzon, Permanent Partners: Building Gay & Lesbian Relationships That Last (page 20)

     In a subculture that idealizes youth, being gay and gray does not exactly make one a hot ticket. Older gays and lesbians often relegate themselves to separate and unequal meeting places.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

gray (third-person singular simple present grays, present participle graying, simple past and past participle grayed)

1. To become gray.

2. To cause to become gray.
3. (demography, slang) To turn progressively older, alluding to graying of hair through aging (used in context of the population of a geographic region)

4. (transitive, photography) To give a soft effect to (a photograph) by covering the negative while printing with a ground-glass plate.

Translations

Noun

gray (plural grays)

1. An achromatic colour intermediate between black and white.

2. An animal or thing of grey colour, such as a horse, badger, or salmon.
3. (chiefly US, ufology) an extraterrestrial humanoid with grayish skin, bulbous black eyes, and an enlarged head.
4. (US, two-up) A penny with a tail on both sides, used for cheating.

Translations

See also

References

Etymology 2

Named after English physicist Louis Harold Gray (1905–1965).

Noun

gray (plural grays)

2. In the International System of Units, the derived unit of absorbed dose of radiation (radiation absorbed by a patient); one joule of energy absorbed per kilogram of the patient's mass. Symbol: Gy

   Coordinate term: rad

Derived terms

• kilogray

Translations

Further reading

• gray (unit) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Gary, Yarg, gyra

Czech

Noun

gray m

1. gray (unit of absorbed radiation)

Further reading

• gray in Akademický slovník cizích slov, 1995, at prirucka.ujc.cas.cz

Finnish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??rei?/, [??re?i?]

Noun

gray

1. gray (SI unit)

Declension

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???j/

Noun

gray m (plural grays)

1. gray (SI unit)

Portuguese

Etymology 1

Noun

gray m (plural grays)

1. (physics) gray (SI unit of absorbed radiation)

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

• grey

Noun

gray m (plural grays)

1. (ufology) gray (one of a race of evil, short extraterrestrial beings)

Swedish

Noun

gray c

1. gray (SI unit)