Grateful

//ˈɡɹeɪtf(ʊ)l// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of a person or their actions, feelings, etc.: expressing gratitude or appreciation; appreciative, thankful.

    "I’m grateful that you helped me out."

  2. 2
    Of a thing or (obsolete) person: pleasing to the mind or senses; agreeable, pleasant, welcome. archaic

    "[T]his is a guift / Very gratefull, I am ſure of it, to expreſſe / The like kindneſſe my ſelfe, that haue beene / More kindely beholding to you then any: […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    feeling or showing gratitude wordnet
  2. 2
    affording comfort or pleasure wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
appreciativepleasantthankfulacceptableacknowledgingaffable

Example

More examples

"I am very grateful to you for your help."

Etymology

From grate (“(obsolete) serving to gratify, agreeable, pleasing; grateful, thankful”) + -ful (suffix forming adjectives with the sense of tending to have or thoroughly having a quality). Grate is a learned borrowing from Latin grātus (“agreeable, pleasing; beloved, dear; grateful, thankful”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“to express approval, praise; to elevate”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.