grasped

past tense of grasp
1
as in understood
to have a practical understanding of he just doesn't grasp how important it is that he call when he'll be late

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of grasped In second grade, Hung completed a yearlong math class in three months and grasped pre-algebra in third grade, said Choi, a longtime tutor who began teaching her son during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lou Ponsi, Oc Register, 29 June 2026 The drive to define the face as a data point, something to be grasped and controlled, underpins the bureaucracy of the modern nation-state, in which faces are surveyed, categorized, and stored in digital banks. Cal Revely-Calder, New Yorker, 29 June 2026 Advertisement Greenspan grasped, perhaps better than anyone, that the distance between the community economy and the global one is not fixed and that financial literacy—understanding how money works, how credit works, how wealth is built—is the civil rights issue of this generation. John Hope Bryant, Time, 23 June 2026 The tick should be grasped as close to the skin's surface as possible and pulled upward with steady, even pressure. Jessica Safavimehr, Southern Living, 16 June 2026 The correct response cannot be grasped, only meditated upon in the way of a koan used to train Zen Buddhist monks and force them into enlightenment. Literary Hub, 11 June 2026 Walt Whitman grasped that something entirely different was called for. Jake Lundberg, The Atlantic, 8 June 2026 And the lecture hall on that campus now features a large, ornate mural of a soccer ball being grasped by the hands of two people — freshly painted by the 2004 Morningside graduate as the city of Inglewood prepares to host eight World Cup games at SoFi Stadium starting next month. Los Angeles Times, 18 May 2026 American has grasped that this will be a tournament when travel is experienced through friction as much as glamour, and that a brand which removes the challenges is remembered differently. Kate Hardcastle, Forbes.com, 14 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for grasped
Verb
  • Many of us have long understood that putting your country’s main creative engine inside a techno-dominant machine was probably never going to end well for creativity.
    Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 25 June 2026
  • For reasons that aren't yet fully understood, the results sometimes differ from previous events.
    Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA Today, 25 June 2026
Verb
  • In the selfie video, Valentina grinned into the camera wearing a gold choker and gold hoops as her mother hugged her from behind.
    Meg Walters, InStyle, 30 June 2026
  • At the defense table that day, Broadwater, wearing a gray pinstripe suit, choked back sobs and hugged his lawyers.
    Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica, 30 June 2026
Verb
  • The rapper, who pleaded not guilty to all charges, has been held at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center since he was arrested in September 2024.
    Daniel S. Levine, People.com, 6 Aug. 2025
  • That means every state budget could be held hostage until the whims of a small fraction of legislators is satisfied.
    Ross O'Keefe, The Washington Examiner, 6 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • Filming wrapped in May 2025, and as early as the fall of that year, the studio and Gillespie knew the movie wasn’t working.
    Borys Kit, HollywoodReporter, 3 July 2026
  • At that point, Bobrovsky knew his seven-season run in South Florida, one that included winning a pair of Stanley Cups, was over.
    Jordan McPherson, Miami Herald, 3 July 2026
Verb
  • As the service began, it was clasped shut.
    Bracey Harris, NBC news, 28 June 2026
  • The Philly duo’s tender, faintly medieval-sounding folk song has its hands clasped and its heart on its sleeve.
    Lily Goldberg, Pitchfork, 26 June 2026
Verb
  • Like much of Europe, Romania has been gripped by a heatwave this week, with temperatures in some areas forecast to exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
    ABC News, ABC News, 1 July 2026
  • Button Gwinnett didn’t want to be in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress in the summer of 1776, and not just because a heat wave gripped the city and delegates dressed in wool and powdered wigs.
    Adam Van Brimmer, AJC.com, 30 June 2026
Verb
  • The company expects a little more of an impact in its Q2, but Cook said it’s fully comprehended in the above Street outlook of 48% to 49%.
    Jeff Marks, CNBC, 30 Jan. 2026
Verb
  • There had no visible safety equipment, and clung to the spire by their fingertips.
    Jesse Zanger, CBS News, 1 July 2026
  • The chaotic conclusion nearly overshadowed what Gray had done earlier, striking out nine and shutting down the Yankees emphatically for 7 1/3 innings as Boston clung to a 2-0 advantage.
    ABC News, ABC News, 28 June 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Grasped.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grasped. Accessed 5 Jul. 2026.

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