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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
Peter Sblendorio, New York Daily News, 10 Mar. 2025
This season, the challenges feel a lot more rooted in this gritty reality.
—Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Mar. 2025
The water on the floor was gritty and black, and the man moved the filth around.
—Amitava Kumar, The New Yorker, 8 Mar. 2025
However, that reprieve from using his training (both in fighting techniques and honing his other senses to supernatural levels) is short-lived, with a gasp-inducing opening sequence that shatters any illusion that this revival wouldn’t be as gritty and brutal as its predecessor.
—Dominic Baez, Twin Cities, 8 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 13 Mar. 2025.
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