Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
grayish brown

grayish brown

2.7
A light dull brown that looks slightly gray
  • noun
  • /ˈɡreɪɪʃ braʊn/
  • US
translation icon : marrón grisáceo
  • The leaves on the ground were covered in a grayish brown hue as autumn began to take hold.

Examples

  • It's in this same temperature range that the pigment myoglobin (which is what makes raw meat look red) denatures and turns grayish brown.

    Academic text (1999)

  • "When they're alive, the exoskeleton is blue along the edge, white beneath, and grayish brown across the back."

    Fiction book (2002)

  • I saw that her hair wasn't what you'd call carroty-colored any longer, but a dull grayish brown.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Beneath 132 cm, to a depth of 178 cm, dark grayish brown clay with light olive brown mottles is common.

    Academic text (1998)

  • The wall was painted a soft grayish brown, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere.

  • She mixed paint until she achieved the perfect shade of grayish brown for her craft project.

Synonyms

light brown
vsgrayish brown
16 1.0

A pale brown color like dry sand in sunlight

contains a dull grey mix making it less purely pale brown
dun
vsgrayish brown
2 8.9

A dull light brown-grey color

is a light dull brown shade with slightly stronger brown than grey
pardo
vsgrayish brown
9.9

A dull brown and gray color like dry earth

is a paler dull brown leaning away from warm tawny quality

How Gray

dark-gray
  • US
7 1.0
gray
  • US
321 1.0
grayish brown
  • US
2.7
brown
939 1.0
brownish
13 1.0

Surface Forms

grayish brown singular
greyish brown singular

Morphology

grayish + brown

The meaning is directly compositional: 'grayish' modifies 'brown' to indicate a brown color with a grey tint, so a learner who knows both constituents can predict the resulting pale/dull brown shade. Color adjective combinations are a productive, cross-linguistically common pattern, making this phrase immediately interpretable at B1 level.

Etymology

Grayish brown comes from the simple idea of mixing gray and brown; imagine mixing gray and brown paint or a brown coat faded by sun and dust to a softer color. That's why the phrase describes a 'light, dull brown' shade.