grateful

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).^[1] 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”).^[2]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹeɪtf(ʊ)l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹeɪtf(ə)l/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪtfəl
• Hyphenation: grate‧ful

grateful (comparative gratefuller or more grateful, superlative gratefullest or most grateful)

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

   Antonyms: (obsolete) ingrateful, ungrateful

   I’m grateful that you helped me out.

   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 236, column 1:

     I cannot giue thee leſſe to be cal'd gratefull: / Thou thoughtſt to helpe me, and ſuch thankes I giue, / As one neere death to thoſe that vviſh him liue: […]

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, signature [M4], recto, lines 327–334:

     They ſat them dovvn, and after no more toil / Of thir ſvveet Gardning labour then ſuffic'd / To recommend coole Zephyr, and made eaſe / More eaſie, vvholſom thirſt and appetite / More grateful, to thir Supper Fruits they fell, / Nectarine Fruits vvhich the compliant boughes / Yeilded them, ſide-long as they ſat recline / On the ſoft dovvnie Bank damaskt vvith flours: […]

   • 1739, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, “Psalm CXVII”, in Hymns and Sacred Poems, London: […] William Strahan; and sold by James Hutton, […]; and at Mr. Bray’s, […], →OCLC, part II, stanza I, page 139:

     Ye Nations, vvho the Globe divide, / Ye num'rous Nations ſcatter'd vvide, / To God your grateful Voices raiſe: […]

   • 1753 (indicated as 1754), [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXIII. Continuation of Lady G.’s Letter to Lady L.”, in The History of Sir Charles Grandison. […], volume IV, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by C. Hitch and L. Hawes, […], →OCLC, page 239:

     VVhen ſhe and I vvere alone, ſhe took grateful notice of the concluding part of the third Letter; vvhere ſhe is mentioned vvith ſo much tenderneſs, and in a manner ſo vvorthy of the character of the politeſt of men, as vvel reſpecting herſelf as her Sex, […]

   • 1827, [Benjamin Disraeli], chapter I, in Vivian Grey, volume IV, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, book VI, page 22:

     [T]he noble secretary had not only been given a choice toast, sung a choice song, and been hailed by the grateful plaudits of all present; but had proceeded in his attempt to fulfil the pledge which he had given at the gate to the very letter, by calling out lustily for a bottle of Geisenheim, lemons, brandy, and a bowl.

   • 1833, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “The Interview—The Crisis of a Life”, in Godolphin. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, book II, page 199:

     I am touched—made grateful—proud—yes, truly proud—by your confessed affection—but— […]

   • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 100:

     But, they were happy, grateful, pleased with one another, and contented with the time; and when they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings of the Spirit's torch at parting, [Ebenezer] Scrooge had his eye upon them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last.

   • 1864 (date written), Folliott S[andford] Pierpoint, “[For the Beauty of the Earth]”, in Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States, partial edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Publication and Sunday School Board of the Reformed Church in the United States […], published 1866, →OCLC, hymn 65:

     For the beauty of the earth, / For the glory of the skies, / For the love which from our birth / Over and around us lies: / Lord of all, to Thee we raise / This our hymn of grateful praise.

     The original version of the poem read: “Christ, our God, to Thee we raise / This our Sacrifice of Praise”: see F[olliott Sandford] Pierpoint (1864), “Sacrifice of Praise”, in Orby Shipley, editor, Lyra Eucharistica: Hymns and Verses on the Holy Communion, Ancient and Modern; with Other Poems, 2nd edition, London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, →OCLC, part VI (Miscellaneous Hymns. Eucharistic Hymns Ancient and Modern.), page 340.

   • 1904 December 24, Alice Duer Miller, “The Burglar and the Blizzard: The Christmas Adventure of a Country Gentleman, an Aristocratic Robber, and a Lady of Quality, Told in Three Parts: Part Two”, in [Norman Hapgood], editor, Collier’s Weekly, volume XXXIV, number 13 (Yule-tide number), New York, N.Y.: P[eter] F[enelon] Collier & Son, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 17, column 1:

     Perhaps I could be gratefuller if there were any prospect of a fire.

   • 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2 – 1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 13 September 2024:

     [Andy] Carroll thought he had equalised with his header against the bar with eight minutes left. Liverpool claimed the ball had crossed the line and Chelsea were grateful for a miraculous intervention from Cech [Petr Čech] to turn his effort on to the woodwork.

   • 2025, Cid Swanenvleugel, The Pre-Roman Elements of the Sardinian Lexicon (LOT Dissertation Series; 687), Amsterdam: Landelijke Onderzoekschool Taalwetenschap [National Research School of Linguistics], →ISBN, page 14:

     Even if the resulting hypotheses fail to convince, the large amounts of lexical data gathered from a wealth of disparate sources especially by Bertoldi, Alessio and Hubschmid, are impressive in their own right, and I have made grateful use of these scholars' efforts in this study.

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

   Antonyms: (obsolete) ingrateful, ungrateful

   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 215, column 1:

     [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: […]

   • 1609, Tho[mas] Heywood, “Canto. 9.”, in Troia Britanica: Or, Great Britaines Troy. […], London: […] W[illiam] Iaggard, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 197:

     Chaſt, nothing better; vvanton, nothing vvorſe, / The grate-fulſt Bleſsing, or the greateſt Curſe.

   • 1659–1660, Thomas Stanley, “[The Doctrine of Epicurus.] Chap[ter] XXIII. Of Fortitude, against Discontent of Mind.”, in The History of Philosophy, the Third and Last Volume, […], volume III, London: […] Humphrey Moseley, and Thomas Dring, […], →OCLC, 5th part (Containing the Epicurean Sect), 3rd part of philosophy (Ethick, or Morals), page 261:

     [T]he aſſvvagement of his [a wise man's] diſcontent conſiſts in tvvo things, formerly preſcribed as remedies againſt corporeall pain; viz. Diverſion of his thoughts from his loſſe, or the cause of it; and an application of them to thoſe things, vvhich he knovves to be gratefull and pleaſant to his mind.

   • 1725, Homer, “Book IV”, in [Elijah Fenton], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, pages 178 and 180, lines 541–543 and 580–583:

     [page 178] The Seer, vvhile Zephyrs curl the ſvvelling deep, / Basks on the breezy ſhore, in grateful ſleep, / His oozy limbs. […] [page 180] VVith joy impetuous, to the port I ſpeed: / The vvants of nature vvith repaſt ſuffice, / 'Till night vvith grateful ſhade involv'd the skies, / And ſhed ambroſial devvs.

   • 1761, [Charles Churchill], Night. An Epistle to Robert Lloyd. […], London: […] W[illiam] Flexney, […], →OCLC, page 5:

     Then in Oblivion's grateful cup I drovvn / The galling ſneer, the ſupercilious frovvn, / The ſtrange reſerve, the proud affected ſtate / Of upſtart knaves grovvn rich and fools grovvn great.

   • 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of the Frog, and Its Varieties”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume VII, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, page 76:

     [W]hen a ſhovver comes to refreſh the earth, then the vvhole multitude [of frogs] are ſeen to quit their retreats, in order to enjoy the grateful humidity.

   • 1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], “A Scottish Manor House Sixty Years since”, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume III, Edinburgh:  […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, pages 107–108:

     […] Waverley, […] walked slowly down the avenue, enjoying the grateful and cooling shade, and so much pleased with the placid ideas of rest and seclusion excited by this confined and quiet scene, that he forgot the misery and dirt of the hamlet he had left behind him.

   • 1822, John Mason Good, “Class VI. Eccritica. Diseases of the Excernent Function. Physiological Proem.”, in The Study of Medicine, […], volume IV, […] [George Woodfall] for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, →OCLC, page 287:

     [T]he mimosa nilotica secerns from its roots a fluid as offensive as that of assafœtida; in the sap of its step an astringent acid; its glands give forth gum arabic; and its flowers an odour of a very grateful fragrance.

   • 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[Ballads.] The Skeleton in Armour.”, in Ballads and Other Poems, 2nd edition, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, →OCLC, page 40:

     Fell I upon my spear, / O, death was grateful!

   • 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, “The Journey Round the Beach”, in Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 254:

     All balmy from the groves of Tahiti, came an indolent air, cooled by its transit over the waters; and grateful under foot, was the damp and slightly yielding beach, from which the waves seemed just retired.

   • 1929, Theodore Howard Banks, Jr., “Introduction”, in Theodore Howard Banks, Jr., transl., Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, New York, N.Y.: Appleton-Century-Crofts, published 1957, →OCLC, pages 7–8:

     The system of four-beat alliterative Anglo-Saxon poetry permitted such a range of unaccented syllables between stresses that an exact reproduction of this quality seemed undesirable. The translator, has, therefore, permitted himself no more than two unaccented syllables between stresses, except before and after a full stop where the pause sufficiently separates the light syllables. The resultant effect is a freely equivalenced anapestic measure, perhaps more grateful to modern ears than the less normalized beat of the original.

• gratefull (obsolete)

• gratitude
• ingrate

• gratitude on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “grateful”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “grateful”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “grateful”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.