gratuitous
adjective
Roger L'EstrangeCurrent Biography
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These Gratuitous Facts Are Free
Like gratitude, grace, and congratulate, gratuitous is a descendant of the Latin word gratus, which means "pleasing" or "grateful." When gratuitous was first used in the 17th century, it meant "free" or "given without return benefit or compensation." The extended meaning "done without good reason" or "unwarranted" came about just a few decades later, perhaps from the belief held by some people that one should not give something without getting something in return. Today, that extended meaning is the more common sense, employed, for example, when graphic cruelty depicted in a work of fiction is described as "gratuitous violence," or when unkind words better left unsaid are described as "a gratuitous insult."
Examples of gratuitous in a Sentence
Bruce Fein, Baltimore Sun, 10 July 2025
Earlier, Pegas told me his two biggest literary influences were Bret Easton Ellis and David Foster Wallace, and his story combines Ellis’ gratuitous violence with Wallace’s postmodern fixation with mass media.
—John McDermott, Rolling Stone, 6 July 2025
With the studly Euro-hunk Hugo Stiglitz and gratuitous nudity — Tintorera is said to be a Quentin Tarantino favorite.
—Chris Nashawaty, EW.com, 20 June 2025
No hype men, no special guests, no gratuitous self-promotion.
—Bob Gendron, Chicago Tribune, 7 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for gratuitous
Cite this Entry
“Gratuitous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gratuitous. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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gratuitous
adjective
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