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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
Matt Schneidman, New York Times, 26 Apr. 2025
The aesthetic—gritty, urban, and unpolished—offered a direct counterpoint to the glossy high street.
—Kate Hardcastle, Forbes.com, 21 Apr. 2025
Butler and Curry closed things out from there in a game that was just as gritty as the last showdown between the teams.
—Joseph Dycus, Mercury News, 21 Apr. 2025
Across China – from gritty factory floors to warehouses and shipping docks – the flow of exports screeched to a halt last Friday, as 145% U.S. tariffs took hold, and Beijing announced countermeasures.
—Ann Scott Tyson, Christian Science Monitor, 15 Apr. 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 30 Apr. 2025.
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