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grave 1 (grāv)
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n.
1.
a. An excavation for the interment of a corpse.
b. A place of burial.
2. Death or extinction: faced the grave with calm resignation.
[Middle English, from Old English græf; see ghrebh-2 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 
grave 2 (grāv)
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adj. grav·er, grav·est
1. Requiring serious thought; momentous: a grave decision in a time of crisis.
2. Fraught with danger or harm: a grave wound.
3. Dignified and somber in conduct or character: a grave procession. See Synonyms at serious.
4. Somber or dark in hue.
5. (also gräv) Linguistics
a. Written with or modified by the mark ( ` ), as the è in Sèvres.
b. Of or referring to a phonetic feature that distinguishes sounds produced at the periphery of the vocal tract, as in labial and velar consonants and back vowels.
n. (also gräv)
See grave accent.
[French, from Old French, from Latin gravis; see gwerə-1 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
gravely adv.
graveness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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