Gritty

How to spell gritty

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce gritty

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does gritty mean?

1. adjectiveShowing courage, toughness, and stubborn determination, often in a harsh or unglamorous way.
2. adjectiveContaining or covered with grit, so that it feels rough or sandy.

Gritty in a sentence

• The documentary gave a gritty portrait of life on the night shift.

• The lettuce was still gritty because nobody had rinsed off the soil.

• Her gritty refusal to quit eventually won the contract.

• A gritty residue coated the floor near the back door.

Where does gritty come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the noun 'grit', which comes from the Old English 'greot', meaning sand, gravel, or earth, and traces back to a Germanic root tied to grinding and crushing small particles. For centuries 'grit' simply named the fine, abrasive material you might feel between your teeth or under your boots. In the early nineteenth century English speakers, especially in American usage, extended 'grit' to mean firmness of character, the idea being that a tough, determined person had the same hard, unyielding quality as sand or stone. The adjective 'gritty' followed both threads: it can describe something literally full of grit and rough to the touch, or a person, story, or place that is tough, unpolished, and unflinchingly realistic. The doubled t, which is the main spelling trap, comes from the standard English rule of doubling a single final consonant after a short stressed vowel before adding the suffix.

How the word is built

• grit (fine sand or gravel; also pluck or courage)
• -y (adjective suffix, with the final t doubled)