Inflected forms: grav·er, grav·est 1. Requiring serious thought; momentous: a grave decision in a time of crisis.2. Fraught with danger or harm: a grave wound.3. Dignified and somber in conduct or character: a grave procession. See synonyms at serious. 4. Somber or dark in hue. 5. (also gräv) Linguisticsa. Written with or modified by the mark ( ` ), as the è in Sèvres.b. Of or referring to a phonetic feature that distinguishes sounds produced at the periphery of the vocal tract, as in labial and velar consonants and back vowels.
NOUN:
Linguistics (also gräv) A mark ( ` ) indicating a pronounced e for the sake of meter in the usually nonsyllabic ending -ed in English poetry.
ETYMOLOGY:
French, from Old French, from Latin gravis. See gwer-1 in Appendix I.
gr
v
-1 in Appendix I.
ly —ADVERB
