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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
Adam Hurly, Robb Report, 13 June 2025
Curtis Everett in Snowpiercer (2014) Released just two years after the first Avengers, Bong Joon Ho's apocalyptic thriller Snowpiercer allowed Evans to show off his grittier side, playing a reluctant revolutionary named Curtis.
—Devan Coggan, EW.com, 13 June 2025
Make teeth cleaning fun and let a toy do all the gritty work.
—Cody Godwin, USA Today, 12 June 2025
Food vendors sizzled meats at vendor stalls and kept juices in massive, unlabeled canisters under the gritty subway underpass – devoid of any labels or apparent sanitation or health and safety standards.
—Michael Dorgan, FOXNews.com, 9 June 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 18 Jun. 2025.
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