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gracious
[ grey-shuhs ]
adjective
- pleasantly kind, benevolent, and courteous.
Synonyms: polite, pleasant, kindly, friendly, courteous, benign, benevolent
Antonyms: churlish
- characterized by good taste, comfort, ease, or luxury: a gracious home.
gracious suburban living;
a gracious home.
- indulgent or beneficent in a pleasantly condescending way, especially to inferiors.
- merciful or compassionate:
our gracious king.
Synonyms: gentle, mild, merciful, clement, tender, compassionate
Antonyms: cruel
- Obsolete. fortunate or happy.
interjection
- Also good gracious. (used as an exclamation of surprise, relief, dismay, etc.)
gracious
/ ˈɡreɪʃəs /
adjective
- characterized by or showing kindness and courtesy
- condescendingly courteous, benevolent, or indulgent
- characterized by or suitable for a life of elegance, ease, and indulgence
gracious furnishings
gracious living
- merciful or compassionate
- obsolete.fortunate, prosperous, or happy
interjection
- an expression of mild surprise or wonder (often in exclamatory phrases such as good gracious!, gracious me! )
Derived Forms
- ˈgraciousness, noun
- ˈgraciously, adverb
Other Words From
- gra·cious·ly adverb
- gra·ci·os·i·ty [grey-shee-, os, -i-tee], noun
- gra·cious·ness noun
- non·gra·ci·os·i·ty noun
- non·gra·cious adjective
- o·ver·gra·cious adjective
- qua·si-gra·cious adjective
Word History and Origins
Idioms and Phrases
see goodness gracious .Synonym Study
Example Sentences
When my family came down with the coronavirus in November, I immediately sought advice from Ben, who had probably just come off a grueling shift at the hospital but was still incredibly gracious.
If you attend, it would be gracious to send a modest present.
If the service seems unusually smooth and gracious, it’s because a number of employees hail from the Fabio Trabocchi school of hospitality.
It was neither friendly nor gracious to be absolutely confident in your own diagnosis.
In a video responding to Hart’s decision, Miller-Meeks announced that she received “a very gracious call” from her former Democratic opponent officially conceding the race.
But he was always uncommonly gracious, a truly gentle man, willing to dispense wisdom and perspective when asked.
At his Tucson hacienda he is a gracious host and a good neighbor.
It was a gracious touch, a rhetorical olive branch to his vanquished foes.
Obama managed the extraordinary feat of making McConnell look gracious by comparison.
Steven was gracious enough to do it, and his thoughts were fantastic.
"I am sure there is no one I shall like half so well," said Isabel, truthfully; and Flora loved her for not being gracious.
The gracious message then was, that in such a case he should be represented to the Pope, and possibly might be pardoned.
What gives to a religious assembly all its solemnity, is the gracious presence of God.
She was gracious to him for once, and gave him good morning in a manner that bordered upon the pleasant.
But although Turner has exaggerated the ruggedness of Hindhead in his picture, the place is not at all gracious or suave.
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Related Words
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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