Meaning of great in English

great

adjective

/ɡreɪt/ us

/ɡreɪt/

great adjective (BIG)

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large in amount, size, or degree:

an enormous great hole

The issue is of great importance to voters.

The improvement in water standards over the last 50 years has been very great.

A great many people would agree.

the great majority of The great majority of (= almost all) people would agree.

great pleasure formal It gives us great pleasure to announce the engagement of our daughter Maria.

great sorrow formal It is with great sorrow that I inform you of the death of our director.

great sympathy I have great sympathy for you.

great deal of I spent a great deal of time there.

Synonyms

astronomical (LARGE) informal
big  (LARGE)
colossal
elephantine formal
enormous
gargantuan
giant 
gigantic
ginormous informal
goodly old-fashioned
hefty
huge
immense
jumbo
large 
mahoosive UK informal
mammoth 
massive
outsize
oversize mainly US
prodigious formal
respectable
sizeable mainlyUK
stupendous
thumping  UK informal
tidy  mainly UK
tremendous
vast
voluminous formal
walloping  informal humorous
whopping informal

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

greater than the average size or amount

bigThey live in a big house in the country.
largeA large number of people were crowded into the room.
greatThe party was a great success.
enormousThey bought an enormous house in the suburbs.

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[ before noun ]

used in names, especially to mean large or important:

a Great Dane (= large type of dog)

Catherine the Great

the Great Wall of China

the Great Bear (= group of stars)

greater than mathematics specialized

larger in number or amount than:

X must be equal to or greater than 10.

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A great number of women used to die in childbirth.
For a goalkeeper, it's a great advantage to have big hands.
He's a great comfort to his mother.
She has finally got the job she wanted, but at great personal cost .
The pay differential between workers and management is too great.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Big and quite big

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great adjective (FAMOUS)

B2 approving

famous, powerful, or important as one of a particular type:

a great politician/leader/artist/man/woman

This is one of Rembrandt's greatest paintings.

Who do you think is the greatest modern novelist?

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having great effect or influence

importantIt was one of the most important legal cases of the century.
bigThis is a big match tonight - if we lose, we won't be in the playoffs.
majorThis is a major decision so we'd better get it right.
significantDid he make any significant changes to my suggestions?

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The cinematic effects in her films are clearly borrowed from the great film-makers of the past.
Rome, Carthage and Athens were some of the great city-states of the ancient world.
Gathered all together in this church, we commemorate those who lost their lives in the great war.
As a child, he aspired to be a great writer.
Despite her limitations as an actress, she was a great entertainer.

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Very important or urgent

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great adjective (EXTREME)

extreme:

great success/difficulty

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We're living in a time of great change.
The numerous awards on the walls bear witness to his great success.
It takes great skill to weave a basket from/out of rushes.
To my great surprise, they agreed to all our demands.
The George Cross is a decoration that is bestowed on British civilians for acts of great bravery.

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Linguistics: very & extreme

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great adjective (GOOD)

A1 informal

very good:

a great idea

We had a great time last night at the party.

it is great to It's great to see you after all this time!

"I'll lend you the car if you like." "Great! Thanks a lot!"

"What's your new teacher like?" "Oh, he's great."

"How are you feeling now?" "Great."

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

extremely pleasant, enjoyable, or likable

excellentThe food was excellent, thank you.
wonderfulHave a wonderful trip!
terrificThat's such terrific news, congratulations!
fabulousI love her dress, it's fabulous.
greatThe film was great.

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informal

used to mean that something is very bad:

Oh great ! That's all I need - more bills!

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Everyone says it's a great movie, but I think it's overrated.
My new hiking boots will be great once I've broken them in.
Ireland boasts beautiful beaches, great restaurants and friendly locals.
I think the party was great.
There's a great film on TV at midnight.

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Extremely good

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Informal words for bad

Related word

greatness

Idioms

be a great one for something
go great guns
great minds think alike
no great shakes

great

adverb [ before noun ], adjective

informal

/ɡreɪt/ us

/ɡreɪt/

used to emphasize the meaning of another word:

a great big spider

a great long queue

You great idiot!

Pat's a great friend of mine.

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They left a great enormous pile of washing-up in the sink.
Take your great fat hands off my private things, you!
Who parked that horrible great lorry right outside my window?
She had a whopping great bruise on her arm.
He just stood there with a silly great grin on his face.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Linguistics: very & extreme

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great

noun [ C ]

/ɡreɪt/ us

/ɡreɪt/

a famous person in a particular area of activity:

former tennis great Arthur Ashe

all-time great Woody Allen, one of the all-time greats of the cinema

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Famous people

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Idiom

the great and the good

great-

prefix

/ɡreɪt-/ us

/ɡreɪt-/

used with a word for a family member to mean one generation away from that member:

your great-grandmother (= the grandmother of one of your parents)

your great-grandson (= the grandson of your child)

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

a grandchild

grandchildNow I see my grandchildren every week.
grandsonShe has a 10 -year-old grandson.
granddaughterHis life is transformed by the arrival of his orphaned granddaughter.
great-I have six grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

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Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

a grandparent

grandparentMy grandparents are both in their 80s.
grandmotherWe went to visit our grandmother in hospital.
grandfatherHer paternal grandfather was a miner.
grandmaWhen grandma comes to visit, she always brings sweets.
grannyShe visited her granny in Pasadena.
nanUK She was brought up by her nan.

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This is your great-uncle George. He's Daddy's uncle.
I have seven grandchildren, and lots of great-nephews and -nieces.
Adelia was my great-aunt and a very grand old lady.
He is the great-great-grandson of Sigmund Freud.
We found the graves of my great-great-grandfather and his first and second wives.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Family: relations in general

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(Definition of great from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

great | American Dictionary

great

adjective [ -er/-est only ]

/ɡreɪt/

great adjective [-er/-est only] (LARGE)

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large or unusually large in amount or degree:

the Great Lakes

He went on to great success as an actor.

There was a great deal of (= a lot of) excitement in the classroom before lunch.

great adjective [-er/-est only] (IMPORTANT)

important, powerful, or famous:

a great president

a great athlete

great adjective [-er/-est only] (GOOD)

infml

very good or very effective; excellent:

We had a great time.

She has a great voice.

This stuff is great for cleaning windows.

greatness

noun [ U ] us

/ˈɡreɪt·nəs/

Her greatness as a writer is beyond question.

great

noun [ C ]

/ɡreɪt/

great noun [C] (IMPORTANT PERSON)

a famous person in a particular area of activity:

This sports facility is named after the tennis great Arthur Ashe.

great-

prefix

/ˌɡreɪt/

great- prefix (FAMILIES)

used with a word for a family member, such as grandmother, to mean one generation older than that family member:

great-grandmother

(Definition of great from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of great

great

This may include planning a further move to housing offering a greater degree of shelter, or even greater reliance on families.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Thus, the spending of the new pesticide tax proceeds, to a great extent, would redistribute money from conventional to organic farming.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Specifically, the younger children might be expected to show greater phonetic sensitivity to the input than older children.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Seventy-eight per cent admitted that they would be more empathetic towards patients, with greater sensitivity to their psychological distress, in the future.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Both of these subscales are scored so that high scores indicate greater psychological well-being and vitality.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Correspondingly, men and women with the greatest burden of childcare responsibilities had increased risk of psychological distress, but this risk was significantly greater for men.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Work factors had a greater impact on class differences in psychological distress in men.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This strengthens the case for work factors having a greater impact on socioeconomic inequalities in psychological distress among men.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Questionnaire on priority assessment of patients referred to orthopedic surgeons showed great differences between reviewers.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Both maps illustrate in great detail the most modern, developed areas and iconic buildings, while the less densely inhabited areas were reduced in size.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Compared with the region's previous combustible qualities, this was a great achievement.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It was most significant from the reported participation from over 25 countries worldwide that there is a great interest in the development of such methodologies.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This may indeed represent one of the events that triggered the great development of the dorsal pallium and associated structures in the mammalian radiation.

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They will only be removed if growers appreciate the significance of compaction and exercise greater patience in organizing their planting schedule.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In this functional approach, the roles of language use and frequency receive greater emphasis.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of great, great-?

A2,B2,B1,A1,B2