Did you know?
Gritty comes from grit ("small hard granules"), which in turn derives, via Middle English, from an Old English word for "sand" or "gravel." Grit has been around since before the 12th century, but the first appearance of gritty in print in English was near the end of the 16th century, when it was used in the sense of "resembling or containing small hard granules." Grit entered American slang with the meaning "courage or persistence" in the early 19th century, and gritty followed suit with a corresponding "plucky" sense. By the 19th century's end, gritty was also being used to describe a literary style that was rough and coarse.
Examples of gritty in a Sentence
Caroline Reid, Forbes.com, 3 Apr. 2025
From housing project to the brink of power Bardella was born in 1995 in the gritty suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis — a place more often in headlines for gang violence and poverty than political promise.
—Thomas Adamson, Los Angeles Times, 1 Apr. 2025
The bright, crisp scent is a fresh way to start the day, and the gel, with its slightly gritty texture, feels amazing and helps make skin feel smoother and softer on the spot.
—Elizabeth Siegel, Allure, 1 Apr. 2025
In a conversation moderated by A24’s Sam Hanson, the helmers dished on everything from their devastating real-life inspiration to the nitty gritty aspects of the production process.
—Natalie Oganesyan, Deadline, 31 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for gritty
Cite this Entry
“Gritty.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gritty. Accessed 12 Apr. 2025.
Copy Citation
Share