grit
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grit¹
- /ɡɹɪt/
Rhymes with -ɪt
Where it comes from
With early modern vowel shortening, from Middle English grete, griet, from Old English grēot, from Proto-West Germanic *greut, from Proto-Germanic *greutą. Compare grist.
noun
- A collection of hard small materials, such as dirt, ground stone, debris from sandblasting or other such grinding, or swarf from metalworking. The flower beds were white with grit from sand blasting the flagstone walkways.
- Sand or a sand–salt mixture spread on wet and, especially, icy roads and footpaths to improve traction.
- Small, hard, inedible particles in food. These cookies seem to have grit from nutshells in them.
- A measure of the size of abrasive grains, such as those on sandpaper, and thus their relative coarseness or fineness; the smaller the number, the coarser the abrasive: thus, 60 is rough, 600 is fine, and 3000 is ultrafine. I need a sheet of 100 grit sandpaper.
- A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; gritstone. Also, a finer sharp-grained sandstone, e.g., grindstone grit.
- Strength of mind; courage or fearlessness; fortitude. That kid with the cast on his arm has the grit to play dodgeball.
verb grits · gritting · gritted · grit
- To clench (one's teeth), particularly in reaction to pain or anger. We had no choice but to grit our teeth and get on with it.
- To cover with grit.
- To give forth a grating sound, like sand under the feet; to grate; to grind. The sanded floor that grits beneath the tread
grit²
- /ɡɹɪt/
Rhymes with -ɪt
Where it comes from
From Middle English *gryt (“bran, chaff”), from Old English grytt, from Proto-West Germanic *gruti (“coarsely ground bits”), ablaut variant of Proto-Indo-European *gʰrewd-. See above. Doublet of goetta.
noun grits
- Husked but unground oats.
- Coarsely ground corn or hominy used as porridge. grits and eggs
Grit³
Where it comes from
After the Clear Grits, 19th-century reformers so named because they wanted members who were "all sand and no dirt, clear grit all the way through".
noun Grits
- A member or supporter of the Liberal Party of Canada or one of its provincial wings (except for the Quebec provincial wing).
adjective
- Of or belonging to the Liberal Party of Canada.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: gritrock, sand, gritstone, guts, backbone, gumption, gravel, gravelly, millstone, sandpaper, waterstone, notch, meal, grain, corn, juice
Translations
Every language
noun collection of hard materials
| Español | arenilla |
|---|---|
| Português | granalha |
| Français | gravillon |
| Deutsch | Splitt, Schotter, Streu, Grieß, Streumittel, Streugut |
| Italiano | sabbia |
| Русский | песо́к pesók |
noun inedible particles in food
| Deutsch | Ballaststoff, Grieß, Schrot |
|---|
noun measure of coarseness
| Español | grano |
|---|---|
| Português | grão |
| Deutsch | Korn, Körnung |
| Italiano | grana |
| Русский | зерни́стость zernístostʹ |
noun strength of mind
| Español | temple, agalla |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 気概 kigai |
| Português | tenacidade, garra |
| Français | cran |
| Deutsch | Mut, Schneid |
| Italiano | grinta |
| Русский | упорство uporstvo, выдержка vyderžka, бесстрашие besstrašije, сила воли sila voli, хватка xvatka, стойкость stojkostʹ |
verb to clench
| Español | apretar |
|---|---|
| 中文 | 咬紧 |
| Français | grincer |
| Deutsch | knirschen, knarren |
| Română | scrâșni |
| Русский | скрежетать skrežetatʹ |
verb to give a grating sound
| Español | crujir |
|---|
noun husked but unground oats
| Español | mote de avena, avena pelada |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | Hafergraupen |
| Italiano | avena mondata |
Talk about this word "grit." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/grit. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. grit. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/grit "grit." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/grit.Cite this
@misc{grit_2026,
title = {grit},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/grit},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
