"gray hat" meaning in English

See gray hat in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-gray hat.ogg Forms: gray hats [plural], grayhat [alternative], grey hat [alternative], greyhat [alternative]
Etymology: From being grey (“gray”), a mix between black and white, morally grey/gray. From white hat + black hat. From cowboy country and western fiction, where good guys wear white Stetson hats with light attire, and bad guys wear black ones with black attire. From chivalric fiction, with white knights and black knights. From the association of the color white with good and black with evil. Head templates: {{en-noun}} gray hat (plural gray hats)
  1. (idiomatic, fiction) A morally ambiguous character; an antihero. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-gray_hat-en-noun-nI-2rGsA Categories (other): Fiction Topics: fiction, literature, media, publishing
  2. (computing, computer security, slang) A hybrid between a white hat and a black hat hacker, who hacks for no personal gain, and does not have malicious intentions, but does sometimes commit crimes. Tags: slang Related terms: black hat, white hat
    Sense id: en-gray_hat-en-noun-fK1JfKE- Categories (other): Computer security, Computing, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, People Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 10 90 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 14 86 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 9 91 Disambiguation of People: 0 100 Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From being grey (“gray”), a mix between black and white, morally grey/gray. From white hat + black hat. From cowboy country and western fiction, where good guys wear white Stetson hats with light attire, and bad guys wear black ones with black attire. From chivalric fiction, with white knights and black knights. From the association of the color white with good and black with evil.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gray hats",
      "tags": [
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    },
    {
      "form": "grayhat",
      "tags": [
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    {
      "form": "grey hat",
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    },
    {
      "form": "greyhat",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
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          "kind": "other",
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          "name": "Fiction",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A morally ambiguous character; an antihero."
      ],
      "id": "en-gray_hat-en-noun-nI-2rGsA",
      "links": [
        [
          "fiction",
          "fiction"
        ],
        [
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          "ambiguous"
        ],
        [
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, fiction) A morally ambiguous character; an antihero."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "fiction",
        "literature",
        "media",
        "publishing"
      ]
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    {
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          "_dis": "10 90",
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "14 86",
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "9 91",
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          "name": "People",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A hybrid between a white hat and a black hat hacker, who hacks for no personal gain, and does not have malicious intentions, but does sometimes commit crimes."
      ],
      "id": "en-gray_hat-en-noun-fK1JfKE-",
      "links": [
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        [
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        [
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        [
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          "hacker"
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        [
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        [
          "commit",
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        [
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      ],
      "qualifier": "computer security",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing, computer security, slang) A hybrid between a white hat and a black hat hacker, who hacks for no personal gain, and does not have malicious intentions, but does sometimes commit crimes."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "28 72",
          "word": "black hat"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "28 72",
          "word": "white hat"
        }
      ],
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        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
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{
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
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    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
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  "etymology_text": "From being grey (“gray”), a mix between black and white, morally grey/gray. From white hat + black hat. From cowboy country and western fiction, where good guys wear white Stetson hats with light attire, and bad guys wear black ones with black attire. From chivalric fiction, with white knights and black knights. From the association of the color white with good and black with evil.",
  "forms": [
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      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "grayhat",
      "tags": [
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      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "grey hat",
      "tags": [
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      ]
    },
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      "form": "greyhat",
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    }
  ],
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A morally ambiguous character; an antihero."
      ],
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, fiction) A morally ambiguous character; an antihero."
      ],
      "tags": [
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      ],
      "topics": [
        "fiction",
        "literature",
        "media",
        "publishing"
      ]
    },
    {
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        "en:Computer security",
        "en:Computing"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A hybrid between a white hat and a black hat hacker, who hacks for no personal gain, and does not have malicious intentions, but does sometimes commit crimes."
      ],
      "links": [
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          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "computer security",
          "computer security"
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        [
          "hybrid",
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        ],
        [
          "white hat",
          "white hat"
        ],
        [
          "black hat",
          "black hat"
        ],
        [
          "hacker",
          "hacker"
        ],
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          "personal",
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        [
          "gain",
          "gain"
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        [
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        ],
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        ],
        [
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        ],
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      "qualifier": "computer security",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing, computer security, slang) A hybrid between a white hat and a black hat hacker, who hacks for no personal gain, and does not have malicious intentions, but does sometimes commit crimes."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ],
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    }
  ],
  "word": "gray hat"
}

Download raw JSONL data for gray hat meaning in English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (58c391d and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.