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.

   Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday greetings.

   Send my greetings to your family.

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
• greetingless
• greetingly
• greetings card
• nongreeting
• 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 (be) 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
• Frisian:

  West Frisian: begroeting c

• Georgian: მისალმება (misalmeba)
• German: Gruß (de) m, Begrüßung (de) f
• Greek: χαιρετισμός (el) m (chairetismós)

  Ancient Greek: 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 (sälemdesüw)
• 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)
• Māori: 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

  Latin: pȍzdrāv (sh) m

• Slovak: pozdrav m
• Slovene: pozdrav (sl)
• Spanish: saludo (es) m, salutación (es) f, saludación (es) f (rare)
• 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
• Yiddish: גרוס (grus)
• Zazaki: selam (diq)

See also

• hello
• salutation

Verb

greeting

1. present participle and gerund of greet

Further reading

• greeting on Wikipedia.Wikipedia