How To Spell The Color Gray
Therefore if you are writing for an american audience use gray when you mean the color.
How to spell the color gray. As in the aluminium is grey in colour. 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. The only exceptions to these rules are. The correct spelling is grey.
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. Both spellings are considered correct but the preferred spelling depends on whether you follow american english or british english standards. In the nineteenth century english dictionaries followed johnson s cue and prescribed gray as the correct version but to no avail. If you re in the united states spell the color gray with an a however if you re in the united kingdom canada or another country that speaks british english you should spell it with an e since that s more commonly accepted in those countries. Gray is used primarily in the united states and other areas that use us english.
The spelling gray with an a is more common in american english. Gray is more frequent in american english whereas grey is more common in british english. In the debate between grey and gray it s best to simply follow the crowd in this instance. In america they would write aluminum is gray in color. Gray must be always be spelled gray.
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. Gray and grey are both common spellings of the color between black and white.