grail

noun

\ ˈgrāl

How to pronounce grail (audio)

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Definition of grail

1 capitalized : the cup or platter used according to medieval legend by Christ at the Last Supper and thereafter the object of knightly quests

2 : the object of an extended or difficult quest

Examples of grail in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Each of these vanishingly rare specimens—a jewelry holy grail—is exactly what its name implies, a pearl that occurs organically within a mollusk without any interference from man. — Stellene Volandes, Town & Country, "The Rarest Pearl of All? It's Called the Melo Melo," 20 Feb. 2021 Longer term, the industry holy grail is solid state batteries, which will replace the liquid lithium solution at the core of most batteries with solid layers of a lithium compound. — New York Times, "The Auto Industry Bets Its Future on Batteries," 16 Feb. 2021 If Hart, widely acclaimed as one of the best wrestlers ever, considered the Anchorage match one of his top five, then the bout was elevated to holy grail status amongst fans. — David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, "A legendary 1989 WWF match in Anchorage is one of the last holy grails in pro wrestling," 28 Dec. 2020 The holy grail of alchemy was the legendary philosopher’s stone, which wasn’t a stone at all but an elusive substance that could isolate the pure essence of a material and transmute it into something else, namely gold. — Meg Neal, Popular Mechanics, "The Eternal Quest for Aether, the Cosmic Stuff That Never Was," 10 Feb. 2021 For Sheila Grant, the fountain has been her holy grail. — Cheryl Hall, Dallas News, "‘Every park needs a Nancy Best’: Philanthropist funding Dallas ‘super fountain’ doesn’t donate and walk away," 4 Dec. 2020 What’s promised is a grail quest, and at first the world is tantalizing, twinkling seductively with meaning. — Hari Kunzru, Harpers Magazine, "Complexity," 5 Jan. 2021 The discovery of a document detailing the occult activities of an old abbess suddenly launches us on a grail quest. — Merve Emre, The New Yorker, "How Leonora Carrington Feminized Surrealism," 21 Dec. 2020 Knowing the true safety of prescription drugs has been a holy grail of modern medicine because nearly half of Americans take at least one drug and a quarter take at least three. — John Fauber, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "From time of JFK to COVID-19, government and hospitals have done poor job tracking drug side effects," 30 Nov. 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'grail.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

2 Mar 2021

Cite this Entry

“Grail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grail. Accessed 6 Mar. 2021.

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