Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Having hair that is gray or white: Describes a person whose hair has lost its original color, typically due to aging, and has become gray or white.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • The kind, gray-haired gentleman offered me his seat on the bus.
  • Many of my professors are gray-haired and very experienced.

Advanced Usage

• Used figuratively to imply age, experience, or venerability: While literally describing hair color, the term often carries connotations of wisdom, maturity, or long life.
  • The gray-haired veterans of the industry shared their insights with the young entrepreneurs.

Variants and Related Words

• Gray-headed (adj): A less common variant with the same meaning.
  • The gray-headed sage lived in the mountains.
• Hoary (adj): Literary or poetic synonym meaning gray or white with age; ancient.
  • He told tales of hoary legends.
• Grizzled (adj): Having gray or partly gray hair, often implying a streaked or rough appearance.
  • The grizzled old sailor had seen many storms.

Synonyms

• Silver-haired: Having hair that is silvery-gray.
• White-haired: Having hair that is white.
• Aged: Having lived for a long time; old.

Related Phrases

• To go/turn gray: The process of one's hair becoming gray.
  • He started to go gray in his late thirties.

Adjective

1. showing characteristics of age, especially having grey or white hair
   • whose beard with age is hoar-Coleridge
   • nodded his hoary head