See grey area in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for grey area meaning in English (6.2kB)
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"etymology_text": "Because grey is a blend of black and white, and thus a metaphor for how an imperfect nature is a blend of perfection and perfidy.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "grey areas",
"tags": [
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"text": "It exists in a grey area between legal and illegal.",
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"An area intermediate between two mutually exclusive states or categories, where the border between the two is fuzzy or ill-defined."
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"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) An area intermediate between two mutually exclusive states or categories, where the border between the two is fuzzy or ill-defined."
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "grey hat"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "grey literature"
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{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "greyline"
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{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "grey market"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "black and white"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "fall between two stools"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"word": "twilight zone"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "97 3",
"sense": "an area intermediate between two mutually exclusive states or categories",
"word": "penumbra"
},
{
"_dis1": "100 0",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "gray area"
}
],
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"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "灰色地帶"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "huīsèdìdài",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "灰色地带"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "gråt område"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "gråzone"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "harmaa alue"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "zone grise"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"raw_tags": [
"in legal terminology"
],
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"especially",
"feminine"
],
"word": "Grauzone"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "gurē zōn",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "グレーゾーン"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"alt": "はいいろのりょういき",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "haīronoryōiki",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "灰色の領域"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "gråsone"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "nn",
"lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "gråsone"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "nieokreślony"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"adjective",
"masculine"
],
"word": "dwuznaczny"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "obszar niejasności"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "séraja zóna",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "се́рая зо́на"
},
{
"_dis1": "96 4",
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "gråzon"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [],
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{
"ref": "2007 May, Men's Health, volume 22, number 4, page 94",
"text": "Fame is a grey area[.]",
"type": "quotation"
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],
"glosses": [
"A topic that is not clearly one thing or the other, that is open to interpretation."
],
"id": "en-grey_area-en-noun--9Po5KBN",
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],
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"(idiomatic) A topic that is not clearly one thing or the other, that is open to interpretation."
],
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"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/En-au-grey_area.ogg",
"tags": [
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"text": "Audio (AU)"
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"word": "grey area"
}
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"categories": [
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{
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"form": "grey areas",
"tags": [
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"word": "grey hat"
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"word": "grey literature"
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"word": "greyline"
},
{
"word": "grey market"
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{
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{
"word": "fall between two stools"
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{
"word": "twilight zone"
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"text": "It exists in a grey area between legal and illegal.",
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"An area intermediate between two mutually exclusive states or categories, where the border between the two is fuzzy or ill-defined."
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"(idiomatic) An area intermediate between two mutually exclusive states or categories, where the border between the two is fuzzy or ill-defined."
],
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"A topic that is not clearly one thing or the other, that is open to interpretation."
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"tags": [
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"synonyms": [
{
"sense": "an area intermediate between two mutually exclusive states or categories",
"word": "penumbra"
},
{
"tags": [
"US"
],
"word": "gray area"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "灰色地帶"
},
{
"code": "cmn",
"lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
"roman": "huīsèdìdài",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "灰色地带"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "gråt område"
},
{
"code": "da",
"lang": "Danish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "gråzone"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "harmaa alue"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "zone grise"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"raw_tags": [
"in legal terminology"
],
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"especially",
"feminine"
],
"word": "Grauzone"
},
{
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "gurē zōn",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "グレーゾーン"
},
{
"alt": "はいいろのりょういき",
"code": "ja",
"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "haīronoryōiki",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "灰色の領域"
},
{
"code": "nb",
"lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "gråsone"
},
{
"code": "nn",
"lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "gråsone"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "nieokreślony"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"adjective",
"masculine"
],
"word": "dwuznaczny"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"word": "obszar niejasności"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "séraja zóna",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "се́рая зо́на"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "area intermediate between two fuzzily-distinguished categories",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "gråzon"
}
],
"word": "grey area"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (ae36afe and 304864d). 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.
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