Grey or gray is an intermediate color between black and white, a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally a color "without color." It is the color of a cloud-covered sky, of ash and of lead. Grey comes from the Middle English grai or grei, from the Anglo-Saxon graeg, and is related to the German grau.[

The first recorded use of grey as a color name in the English language was in AD 700. Grey is the British, Canadian, Australian, Irish, New Zealand and South African spelling, although gray remained in common usage in the UK until the second half of the 20th century. Gray is the preferred American spelling since approximately 1825, although grey is an accepted variant.

Grey also became a common color for military uniforms; in an age of rifles with longer range, soldiers in grey were less visible as targets than those in blue or red. Grey was the color of the uniforms of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and of the Prussian Army during the Franco-German War of 1870.