How To Spell The Color Gray
The correct spelling is grey.
How to spell the color gray. The varying usage of both grey and gray extends to specialized terms such as animal species gray grey whale and scientific terms gray grey matter. Grey is used in great britain and areas that use uk english. If you write and speak british english you ll spell the color as grey with an e. Gray and grey are both common spellings of the color between black and white. By the eighteenth century grey had become the more common spelling even though the legendary lexicographer samuel johnson thought that gray was a better version.
Both spellings are considered correct but the preferred spelling depends on whether you follow american english or british english standards. As in the aluminium is grey in colour. How to use grey in the united kingdom and where other variants of english are used grey is the preferred spelling of the color word and has always been. The spelling gray with an a is more common in american english. In america they would write aluminum is gray in color.
In the nineteenth century english dictionaries followed johnson s cue and prescribed gray as the correct version but to no avail. The only exceptions to these rules are. In the debate between grey and gray it s best to simply follow the crowd in this instance. All three of those spellings present as incorrect in my australian english spell check on internet explorer 10. Proper nouns such as a last name earl grey and zane grey would not be spelled gray and l h.
Gray is more frequent in american english whereas grey is more common in british english. Gray is used primarily in the united states and other areas that use us english.