great

comparative greater · superlative greatest · alternative Geordie geet · alternative gert · alternative girt · alternative UK West Country gurt

1. formalliteraryoftenpoeticTaking up a lot of space; large.

   “[…] 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.[…]”

   1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC

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   ‘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.[…]’

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 7, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

   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.

   2013 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Welcome to the geopolitics of trade, where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, archived from the original on 14 May 2021, page 18

   1. formalliteraryoftenpoeticMuch, more than usual.

      great worry

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      “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?”

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

      The first half of this century has been referred to as the golden age of medicine. To me it seems more probable that we are on the threshold of a much greater age.

      1951 March, John W. Cline, “The Future of Medicine”, in Northwest Medicine, volume 50, number 3, Portland, Ore.: Northwest Medical Publishing Association, page 165

   2. UKformalinformalliteraryoftenpoeticIntensifying a word or expression, used in mild oaths.

      Great Scott!

      1 more example

      a dirty great smack in the face

2. informalVery good; excellent; wonderful; fantastic.First known use 1848

   Dinner was great.

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   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.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

3. Important, consequential.

   a great dilemma

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   a great decision

   So the King made Daniel a great man […]

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Daniel 2:48

   The Dawn is over-caſt, the Morning low’rs, And heavily in Clouds brings on the Day, The great, th’ important Day; big with the Fate Of Cato and of Rome.

   1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1

   The methods for finding parameters that are commonly used in RBC models include using coefficients that come from microeconomic studies for parameters like the time discount factor, rental income over total income for the parameters of a Cobb-Douglas production function, and adjusting parameters so that stationary state value values approach those of the great ratios such as consumption over income and capital over income.

   2008, George McCandless, The ABCs of RBCs, Harvard University Press, page 2

   Racism courses through Donald Trump’s blood and is one of the foundational principles of his presidency. Which is why, when faced with one of the greatest uprisings against police brutality this nation has seen, a movement led by black people around the country and joined by all other people of color and white people as well, his only policy solution is to start a race war.

   2020 June 2, David S. Cohen, “Donald Trump Is Trying to Start a Race War”, in Rolling Stone, archived from the original on 03 Jun 2020

4. qualifying nouns of family relationshipInvolving more generations than the qualified word implies — as many extra generations as repetitions of the word great (from 1510s).

   great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, great-great-great-grandfather

5. obsoletepostpositionalPregnant; large with young; full of.

   great with hope

   2 more examples

   great with child

   the ewes great with young

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 78:71

6. obsoleteexcept with 'friend' and similar words such as 'mate'; 'buddy'; except with 'friend' and similar words such as 'mate'; 'buddy'Intimate; familiar.

   those that are so great with him

   1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Followers and Friends”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

7. applied to actions; thoughts and feelings; applied to actions; thoughts and feelingsArising from or possessing idealism; admirable; commanding; illustrious; eminent.

   a great deed

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   a great nature

   a great history

8. Impressive or striking.

   a great show of wealth

9. Much in use; favoured.

   Poetry was a great convention of the Romantic era.

10. applied to personsOf much talent or achievements.

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

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

    a great walker

    2 more examples

    What a great buffoon!

    He’s not a great one for reading.

alternative Geordie geet · alternative gert · alternative girt · alternative UK West Country gurt

1. Expression of gladness and content about something.

   Great! Thanks for the wonderful work.

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   —I am in my new apartment! —Great!

   2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

2. A 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.

plural greats · alternative Geordie geet · alternative gert · alternative girt · alternative UK West Country gurt

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

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

   1 more example

   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.

   2019 May 1, Daniel Taylor, “Lionel Messi magic puts Barcelona in command of semi-final with Liverpool”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2021

2. entertainmentThe main division in a pipe organ, usually the loudest division.
3. usuallyAn instance of the word great signifying an additional generation in phrases expressing family relationships.

   my three-greats grandmother

4. informalrareA great-grandparent.

   I knew my great-gran, but no one really believed the Montez story until we saw photos of the sinous dancer. My great was the spiitng^([sic]) image of HER great.

   1999 August 25, Christopher Jahn, “Something about Today...”, in alt.callahans (Usenet), archived from the original on 09 Jul 2026

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   On my Ma's side, I have a whole lotta Scot (Ferguson), with some Irish, and her maternal gandpa^([sic]) (my great) was from Trieste, so also Italian-Austrian-Slovenian.

   2002 April 4, John Shafto, “Ethnic origin of Alex”, in alt.music.rush (Usenet), archived from the original on 09 Jul 2026

   My great-grandparents were immigrants from Hjelmeland, Rogaland, Norway, I believe. […] They sailed on the Bergensfjord. From the story my grandmother gives my great was pregnant when she boarded the ship.

   2005 May 8, Vidar Holum, “Nils Hetland and Karina Bjelland or Breiland to USA”, in no.fritid.slektsforsking.etterlysing (Usenet), archived from the original on 09 Jul 2026

alternative Geordie geet · alternative gert · alternative girt · alternative UK West Country gurt

1. informalnot comparableVery well (in a very satisfactory manner).

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