greeting

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹiːtɪŋ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːtɪŋ

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.

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.

• greet

• hello
• salutation

greeting

1. present participle and gerund of greet