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
Alex Ross, New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2025
How to Watch Texans vs Colts The Texans come in at 6-5 after a gritty road win over the Bills, riding a three-game win streak that’s pushed them back into the playoff picture.
—Ben Verbrugge, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Nov. 2025
After 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished on his way to a school bus stop one morning in 1979, his parents, their friends and neighbors frantically scoured the gritty industrial streets and back alleys of Lower Manhattan for miles.
—Ray Sanchez, CNN Money, 29 Nov. 2025
Newton North now holds the all-time series record 69-54-11, and head coach Nick Capodilupo said the comeback victory was a perfect description for how gritty his team was this season.
—Jack Murray, Boston Herald, 26 Nov. 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 5 Dec. 2025.
Copy Citation
Share