GREAT | Meaning, Definition In Cambridge English Dictionary

Meaning of great in English greatadjective uk /ɡreɪt/ us /ɡreɪt/

great adjective (BIG)

Add to word list Add to word list A2 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.great majority 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 tremendous vast voluminous formal walloping informal humorous whopping informal 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.

See more results » [ 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. See more

• 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.

Big and quite big

• appreciable
• baronial
• bigly
• bulky
• fullness
• grandiose
• grandiosely
• grandly
• grandness
• greatness
• growthy
• on the large, small, etc. side idiom
• outsize
• over-large
• palatial
• palatially
• the bigger the better idiom
• voluminously
• XL
• XXL

See more results »

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? 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?

See more results »

• 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.

Very important or urgent

• all-important
• at all costs idiom
• be a matter of life and/or death idiom
• cardinally
• chief
• last
• last but not least idiom
• leading
• life-altering
• life-and-death
• prestigious
• prestigiously
• primacy
• primary
• prime
• tectonic
• vital
• vitally
• weightily
• weighty

See more results »

great adjective (EXTREME)

B1 extreme: great success/difficulty

• 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.

Linguistics: very & extreme

• abjectly
• absolutely
• absolutely fabulous
• abundantly
• abundantly clear
• beyond
• enormously
• exceedingly
• extraordinarily
• imagine
• indeed
• particularly
• richly
• showstopping
• strongly held
• stupefyingly
• super
• super-duper
• totally
• violently

See more results »

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." 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.

See more results » informal said when you are satisfied or pleased about something, or to show agreement with a decision: "We can pick you up later." "Great, thanks." "We have tickets too!" "Great, see you there." If you decide university is not for you then great; I have no problem with that. informal used to mean that something is very bad: Oh great ! That's all I need - more bills!

• 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.

Extremely good

• absolutely fabulous
• admirable
• all killer no filler idiom
• amazing
• amazingly
• first-rate
• five-star
• gourmet
• greatness
• have no parallel phrase
• par excellence
• shining
• slay
• soar
• sock
• splendid
• splendidly
• stellar
• superiority
• wonderfully

See more results »

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

Words & phrases expressing agreement & acceptance Pleasure and happiness Informal words for bad

Related word

greatness

Idioms

be a great one for something go great guns great minds think alike no great shakes the greater good greatadverb [ before noun ], adjective   informal uk /ɡreɪt/ us /ɡreɪt/ B2 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.

• 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.

Linguistics: very & extreme

• abjectly
• absolutely
• absolutely fabulous
• abundantly
• abundantly clear
• beyond
• enormously
• exceedingly
• extraordinarily
• imagine
• indeed
• particularly
• richly
• showstopping
• strongly held
• stupefyingly
• super
• super-duper
• totally
• violently

See more results » greatnoun [ C ] uk /ɡreɪt/ us /ɡreɪt/ a famous person in a particular area of activity: former tennis great Arthur Asheall-time great She's one of the all-time greats of cinema. Famous people

• all-time great
• Archimedes
• Aristotle
• big name
• boldface
• celebrity
• glitterati
• Hippocrates
• household name
• immortal
• it girl
• Julius Caesar
• legend
• living legend
• notable
• pantheon
• personage
• personality
• public figure
• superstar

See more results »

Idiom

the great and the good great-prefix uk /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) 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.

See more results » 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.

See more results »

• 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.

Family: relations in general

• anti-family
• aunt
• auntie
• baby daddy
• baby mama
• family life
• family man
• family of something
• father
• father complex
• kinfolk
• kinship
• kinship network
• kinship term
• kinsman
• relational
• relationally
• relationship
• relative
• removed

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

great | American Dictionary

greatadjective [ -er/-est only ] us /ɡreɪt/

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

Add to word list Add to word list 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. greatnoun [ C ] us /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 us /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. From the Cambridge English Corpus 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 See all examples of great 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-?

Translations of great

in Chinese (Traditional) 大的, 大量的, 巨大的… See more in Chinese (Simplified) 大的, 大量的, 巨大的… See more in Spanish grande, mucho, genial… See more in Portuguese grande, importante, eminente… See more in Marathi in Japanese in Turkish in French in Catalan in Dutch in Tamil in Hindi in Gujarati in Danish in Swedish in Malay in German in Norwegian in Urdu in Ukrainian in Telugu in Bengali in Czech in Indonesian in Thai in Vietnamese in Polish in Korean in Italian फार, खूप, भरपूर… See more すばらしい, 卓越した, 大きな… See more mükemmel, çok iyi, önemli… See more excellent/-ente, merveilleux/-euse, formidable… See more genial, gran, molt… See more groot, groots, enorm… See more அளவு அல்லது டிகிரியில் பெரியது, பிரபலமான, சக்திவாய்ந்த… See more (राशि, आकार, या मात्रा में) बड़ा… See more મોટું, વિશાળ, ઘણું… See more stor, vigtig, betydningsfuld… See more stor, framstående, väldig… See more hebat, sangat besar, sangat… See more bedeutend, groß, besonder… See more storartet, flott, kjempebra… See more بڑا, بہت, عظیم… See more великий, кращий, чудовий… See more గొప్ప/చాలా, ఒక ప్రత్యేక రకంలో ఒకటిగా ప్రసిద్ధమైనది, శక్తివంతమైనది లేదా ముఖ్యమైనది… See more মহান, বড়ো, পরিমাণ… See more velký, významný, ohromný… See more besar, banyak, amat sangat… See more ยอดเยี่ยม, ใหญ่, ดีมาก… See more lớn, vĩ đại, to lớni… See more świetny, wielki, ogromny… See more 훌륭한, 많은, 극심한… See more fantastico, ottimo, grande… See more Need a translator?

Get a quick, free translation!

Translator tool

Browse

greasiness greasing greasy greasy spoon great great ape Great Basin National Park Great Bear great blue heron {{#randomImageQuizHook.filename}} {{#randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} Test your vocabulary with our fun image quizzes Try a quiz now {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{^randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.isQuiz}} {{/randomImageQuizHook.filename}}

More meanings of great

• Great Depression
• great ape
• great fun
• great-aunt
• Great Bear
• Great Dane
• great-niece

See all meanings

• dirty great/big phrase
• good/great/lovely stuff! idiom
• go great guns idiom
• (great) with child idiom
• no great shakes idiom
• of (great) moment phrase
• the great unwashed phrase

See all idioms and phrases

Word of the Day

reboot

UK /ˌriːˈbuːt/ US /ˌriːˈbuːt/

(of a computer) to switch off and then start again immediately, or to make a computer do this

About this

Blog

Red-hot and roasting: words for describing things that are hot.

December 24, 2025 Read More

New Words

quiet cracking December 22, 2025 More new words has been added to list To top AI Assistant Contents EnglishAmericanExamplesTranslations AI Assistant {{#displayLoginPopup}} Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Learn more with +Plus

Sign up for free and get access to exclusive content: Free word lists and quizzes from Cambridge Tools to create your own word lists and quizzes Word lists shared by our community of dictionary fans Sign up now or Log in Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Learn more with +Plus

Create word lists and quizzes for free Sign up now or Log in {{/displayLoginPopup}} {{#displayClassicSurvey}} {{/displayClassicSurvey}}

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus
• My profile
• +Plus help
• Log out

AI Assistant Dictionary Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English Translations Click on the arrows to change the translation direction. Bilingual Dictionaries English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English English–Danish Danish–English English–Dutch Dutch–English English–French French–English English–German German–English English–Indonesian Indonesian–English English–Italian Italian–English English–Japanese Japanese–English English–Norwegian Norwegian–English English–Polish Polish–English English–Portuguese Portuguese–English English–Spanish Spanish–English English–Swedish Swedish–English Semi-bilingual Dictionaries English–Arabic English–Bengali English–Catalan English–Czech English–Gujarati English–Hindi English–Korean English–Malay English–Marathi English–Russian English–Tamil English–Telugu English–Thai English–Turkish English–Ukrainian English–Urdu English–Vietnamese Translate Grammar Thesaurus Pronunciation Cambridge Dictionary +Plus Games {{userName}}

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus
• My profile
• +Plus help
• Log out

Log in / Sign up English (UK) Change English (UK) English (US) Español Português 中文 (简体) 正體中文 (繁體) Dansk Deutsch Français Italiano Nederlands Norsk Polski Русский Türkçe Tiếng Việt Svenska Українська 日本語 한국어 ગુજરાતી தமிழ் తెలుగు বাঙ্গালি मराठी हिंदी Follow us Choose a dictionary

• Recent and Recommended {{#preferredDictionaries}} {{name}} {{/preferredDictionaries}}
• Definitions Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
• Grammar and thesaurus Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English Grammar Thesaurus
• Pronunciation British and American pronunciations with audio English Pronunciation
• Translation Click on the arrows to change the translation direction. Bilingual Dictionaries
  • English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
  • English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
  • English–Danish Danish–English
  • English–Dutch Dutch–English
  • English–French French–English
  • English–German German–English
  • English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
  • English–Italian Italian–English
  • English–Japanese Japanese–English
  • English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
  • English–Polish Polish–English
  • English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
  • English–Spanish Spanish–English
  • English–Swedish Swedish–English
  Semi-bilingual Dictionaries English–Arabic English–Bengali English–Catalan English–Czech English–Gujarati English–Hindi English–Korean English–Malay English–Marathi English–Russian English–Tamil English–Telugu English–Thai English–Turkish English–Ukrainian English–Urdu English–Vietnamese
• Dictionary +Plus Word Lists

Choose your language English (UK) English (US) Español Português 中文 (简体) 正體中文 (繁體) Dansk Deutsch Français Italiano Nederlands Norsk Polski Русский Türkçe Tiếng Việt Svenska Українська 日本語 한국어 ગુજરાતી தமிழ் తెలుగు বাঙ্গালি मराठी हिंदी Contents

• English   
  • Adjective 
    • great (BIG)
    • greater than
    • great (FAMOUS)
    • great (EXTREME)
    • great (GOOD)
  Adverb, adjectiveNounPrefix
• American   
  • Adjective 
    • great (LARGE)
    • great (IMPORTANT)
    • great (GOOD)
  • Noun 
    • greatness
  • Noun 
    • great (IMPORTANT PERSON)
  • Prefix 
    • great- (FAMILIES)
• Examples

• Translations
• Grammar
• All translations

My word lists

To add great to a word list please sign up or log in.

Sign up or Log in My word lists

Add great to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

{{#verifyErrors}}

{{message}}

{{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{#message}}

{{message}}

{{/message}} {{^message}}

Something went wrong.

{{/message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{name}} More Go to your word lists {{#verifyErrors}}

{{message}}

{{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{#message}}

{{message}}

{{/message}} {{^message}}

Something went wrong.

{{/message}} {{/verifyErrors}} Tell us about this example sentence: The word in the example sentence does not match the entry word. The sentence contains offensive content. Cancel Submit Thanks! Your feedback will be reviewed. {{#verifyErrors}}

{{message}}

{{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{#message}}

{{message}}

{{/message}} {{^message}}

There was a problem sending your report.

{{/message}} {{/verifyErrors}} The word in the example sentence does not match the entry word. The sentence contains offensive content. Cancel Submit Thanks! Your feedback will be reviewed. {{#verifyErrors}}

{{message}}

{{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{#message}}

{{message}}

{{/message}} {{^message}}

There was a problem sending your report.

{{/message}} {{/verifyErrors}}