Greet

Podcast 1 · Introduction

Greet

A documentary-style narration: origin, meaning, and feel.

Part of speech

verb and noun

Pronunciation

greet  /ɡriːt/

Definition

As a verb: to address or acknowledge someone when meeting them; to welcome someone; to react to something in a specified way. As a noun (archaic/dialectal): weeping, lamentation.

Plain meaning

To greet someone means to acknowledge them when you meet — with a hello, a wave, a handshake, or a smile. Something can also greet you in the sense of being what you encounter: a crowd greeted her as she arrived.

Register

Neutral and universal. Greet is natural across all registers and social contexts. The extended sense — greeted with applause, greeted with silence — is common in both everyday speech and formal writing. The greeting as a speech act has been extensively studied in sociolinguistics and pragmatics.