Alanna Madden
November 2, 2021
Grammar Tips
“Greatful” is the incorrect spelling of grateful, an adjective that means “expressing gratitude” or “showing and feeling appreciative for something.”
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Mindfulness, kindness, and generosity are capable of providing us with a feeling of happiness, hope, and relief, and we tend to attribute this combination of positive emotions to “gratitude.” When we feel gratitude (a noun), we are thankful and appreciative of an action or something received, and, in turn, we are more willing to “pay it forward.”
The tricky part about using the noun gratitude is that it only conveys the state of “thankfulness,” whereas there are other related words that describe people as thankful, appreciative, indebted, and… grateful.
When you need to describe someone as appreciative and thankful for something done or received, the correct word you’re looking for is grateful (adjective). “Greatful” is a common misspelling of grateful, but it’s easy to see why this spelling error is so common.
For starters, the adjective great describes something as “very good,” “large,” “powerful,” and “extreme,” and we can easily relate one or all of these terms to the feeling of gratitude. However, writers are more apt to misspell grateful because “great” shares the same pronunciation as grate- (pronounced gr-ate).
The word grateful is an adjective that describes someone as “expressing gratitude” or “showing or feeling appreciative of something done or received.” Related terms include the nouns gratitude, gratefulness, and the adverb gratefully.
Example sentences:
Appreciative, appreciatory, beholden, contented, glad, gratified, indebted, obliged, pleased, satisfied, thankful.
Inappreciative, inhospitable, rude, thankless, thoughtless, unappreciative, ungrateful, ungracious.
Although it’s more archaic, the grateful can also describe something (or someone) as “pleasing,” “agreeable,” or “affording pleasure.”
Example sentences:
Agreeable, blessed, delectable, delightful, felicitous, gratifying, luscious, palatable, savory, welcome.
Abominable, disagreeable, ghastly, god-awful, horrid, miserable, offensive, pleasureless, repugnant, unpalatable, unpleasant, unwelcome, vile, wretched.
The word grateful derives from obsolete “grate” (‘agreeable’ or ‘pleasant’) via Latin gratus for ‘pleasing’ + -ful.
The word gratitude describes the state of feeling grateful and ready to return kindness to others. The noun thankfulness is a state or expression of gratitude, making it the same experience as gratitude.
“If you are struggling with feeling gratitude in your current situation, project yourself into the future and imagine how grateful you will be when your circumstances change…” — Columbus Business First
“He said he was grateful for the many strangers who stepped in to help reunite him with Buckley, one of the many dogs over the years to help him through difficult times…” — Newsweek
“The world seemed to be in an unending downward spiral, but at least we had takeout. And we had each other. For that we were grateful.” — The New York Times
“During an appearance at the WellChild Awards in London, Prince Harry explained that his new arrival is, gratefully, pretty chill…” — InStyle
“I saluted the dear man gratefully, perhaps divining that the gift he was giving me would illuminate my whole life thereafter.” — Vanity Fair
“Thankfully, the actors behind these characters broke the “model minority” mold to reveal a tale of disenfranchisement, worsened by the obligation to smile, nod and feign gratefulness that reflects an all-too-common entertainment industry experience for people of color.” — Los Angeles Times
Looking for other tricky buzzwords like “grateful”? Then be sure to check out the following grammar lessons from The Word Counter:
Test how well you understand the difference between greatful and grateful with the following multiple-choice questions.
Quiz Answers
