Standard Lemma guide

grizzly

adj · noun · 7 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈɡɹɪzli/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɪzli
  • homophone: grisly
  • CMU ARPABET: G R IH1 Z L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Grey-haired, greyish.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: grizzled, grisly, hoary, elder, elderly, geriatric, gerontologic, gerontological, long in the tooth, matured, of a certain age, old as Methuselah, on in years, over the hill, senior, superannuated, ivy-covered, preserved, wintry, gray / grey, gray-headed / grey-headed, grey-haired / gray-haired, grizzly, mouldy, silver-haired, silvery-haired, white-haired

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Misspelling of grisly.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of, misspelling

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adj

Meaning 3

Crying or whingeing in a bad-tempered or irritable way.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • a grizzly baby

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

A grizzly bear.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • Shotgun blast kills charging grizzly!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

A grating used to sieve stones by size, so as to keep stones out of the sluices (in hydraulic mining) or to control stone size in the feed to the ore crusher.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: Canada, US, dialectal

Topics: business, mining

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

adjective satellite

Meaning 6

showing characteristics of age, especially having grey or white hair-Coleridge

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • whose beard with age is hoar
  • nodded his hoary head

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: grey, gray, grey-haired, gray-haired, grey-headed, gray-headed, hoar, hoary, white-haired

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

powerful brownish-yellow bear of the uplands of western North America

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: grizzly bear, silvertip, silver-tip, Ursus horribilis, Ursus arctos horribilis

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: brown bear, bruin, Ursus arctos

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English grizzle Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English grizzly From grizzle + -y.

Across languages

Translations

1 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Māori: hawihawi — Crying or whinging
Real reading context

grizzly in complete knowledge articles