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
Bob Gendron, Chicago Tribune, 7 June 2025
While no group has taken credit for the gratuitous act of destruction, according to the university's Division of Public Safety & Security (DPSS), papers found around the site outlined the apparent motive.
—Kyle Schmidbauer, FOXNews.com, 2 June 2025
Centering the action with gore and gratuitous violence up front gave it an identity that was then doubled down upon in every subsequent release .
—Diego Argüello, Rolling Stone, 22 Mar. 2025
But this is not the kind of movie that hinges on abrupt reveals or gratuitous twists.
—Jessica Kiang, Variety, 14 May 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 3 Jul. 2025.
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gratuitous
adjective
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