Greeting

//ˈɡɹiːtɪŋ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A conventional phrase used to start a letter or conversation or otherwise to acknowledge a person's arrival or presence. countable, uncountable

    "It's polite to begin a letter with a greeting, but this practice is less common in email."

  2. 2
    (usually plural) an acknowledgment or expression of good will (especially on meeting) wordnet
  3. 3
    The action of the verb to greet. uncountable

    "I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town."

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of greet form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
salutationaccostaccostaddressaddressaffirmation

Example

More examples

"I bow to the boss in greeting, and he returns my bow with a nod."

Etymology

By surface analysis, greet + -ing.

Related phrases

greeting cardgreetings cardseason's greetings

More for "greeting"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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