greeting

English

Etymology

By surface analysis, greet ‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹiːtɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːtɪŋ

Noun

greeting (countable and uncountable, plural greetings)

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

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

2. (uncountable) The action of the verb to greet.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     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.

Derived terms

• greeting card
• greetings card
• non-greeting
• season's greetings

 

Related terms

• greet

Translations

acknowledgement of a persons presence or arrival

• Albanian: përshëndetje (sq) f
• Arabic: تَحِيَّة (ar) f (taḥiyya)
• Armenian: բարև (hy) (barew)
• Assamese: ওলগ (ülog)
• Azerbaijani: təbrik (az), salam (az)
• Belarusian: прывіта́нне n (pryvitánnje), віта́нне n (vitánnje)
• Bengali: সালাম (bn) (salam)
• Bulgarian: по́здрав (bg) m (pózdrav), приве́тствие (bg) n (privétstvie)
• Burmese: ပဋိသန္ဒါရစကား (pa.ti.sandara.ca.ka:)
• Catalan: salut (ca) m, salutació (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 迎接 (zh) (yíngjiē)

• Czech: pozdrav (cs) m
• Danish: hilsen (da) c
• Dutch: begroeting (nl) f, groet (nl) m
• Egyptian: (njnj)
• Esperanto: saluto (eo)
• Estonian: tervitus
• Faroese: heilsa f, heilsan f, kvøða f
• Finnish: tervehdys (fi)
• French: salutation (fr) f, salut (fr) m
• Georgian: მისალმება (misalmeba)
• German: Gruß (de) m, Begrüßung (de) f
• Greek: χαιρετισμός (el) m (chairetismós)

  Ancient: ἀσπασμός m (aspasmós)

• Hindi: अभिवादन (hi) m (abhivādan)
• Hungarian: üdvözlet (hu), köszöntés (hu)
• Icelandic: kveðja (is) f
• Ido: saluto (io)
• Italian: saluto (it) m, benvenuto (it) m
• Japanese: 挨拶 (ja) (あいさつ, aisatsu)
• Kazakh: сәлемдесу (sälemdesu)
• Khmer: បច្ចុគ្គមន៍ (paccokkum), ស្វាគមន៍ (km) (svaakum)
• Korean: 인사(人事) (ko) (insa)
• Kyrgyz: саламдашуу (ky) (salamdaşuu)
• Latin: salūtātiō (la) f
• Latvian: sveiciens m
• Lithuanian: pasveikinimas m
• Luganda: okubuuza, okulamusa
• Luxembourgish: Begréissung f
• Macedonian: поздрав m (pozdrav), поздравување n (pozdravuvanje)
• Malay: ucapan (ms)
• Maori: waioha, mānawa
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: мэндчилгээ (mn) (mendčilgee)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hilsen (no) m

  Nynorsk: helsing (nn)

• Persian: پیشواز (fa) (pišvâz), تبریک (fa) (tabrik), سلام (fa) (salâm), احوال‌پرسی (fa) (ahvâl-porsi)
• Plautdietsch: Gruss m
• Polish: pozdrowienie (pl) n, powitanie (pl) n
• Portuguese: saudação (pt) f
• Romanian: salut (ro) n, salutare (ro) f
• Russian: приве́тствие (ru) n (privétstvije)
• Scottish Gaelic: fàilte f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: по̏здра̄в m

  Roman: pȍzdrāv (sh) m

• Slovak: pozdrav m
• Slovene: pozdrav (sl)
• Spanish: saludo (es) m
• Swahili: salamu (sw)
• Swedish: hälsning (sv) c, hälsningsfras (sv)
• Tagalog: pagbati, bati, saludo, pugay
• Tajik: табрик (tabrik), салом (salom)
• Thai: การทักทาย (th) (gaan-ták-taai)
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: tebrik (tr), selam (tr)
• Ukrainian: віта́ння n (vitánnja), привіта́ння n (pryvitánnja)
• Uzbek: tabrik (uz), salomlashish
• Vietnamese: lời chào (vi)
• Volapük: glid (vo)
• Welsh: cyfarchiad (cy) m
• West Frisian: begroeting c
• Yiddish: גרוס (grus)
• Zazaki: selam (diq)

See also

• hello
• salutation

Verb

greeting

1. present participle and gerund of greet