Gross

How to spell gross

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce gross

What does gross mean?

1. adjectiveBeing the total amount before any deductions such as tax or expenses are taken out.
2. adjectiveExtremely unpleasant, repulsive, or offensive to the senses.
3. nounA quantity of twelve dozen, that is one hundred and forty-four items.
4. verbTo earn a stated total amount of money before deductions are taken.

Gross in a sentence

• adjective

  Her gross salary looks generous until the tax is removed.

• adjective

  The bin had been left for weeks and the smell was utterly gross.

• noun

  The stationer ordered a gross of pencils for the new term.

• verb

  The film is expected to gross millions in its opening weekend.

• adjective

  The company reported a healthy gross profit for the quarter.

• adjective

  He found the mouldy leftovers in the fridge completely gross.

Where does gross come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Late Latin adjective grossus, which meant 'thick, bulky, or coarse', a fairly literal physical description rather than an insult. It passed into Old French as gros, keeping the sense of something large or coarse, and English took it up in the 1300s. From the idea of 'whole and bulky, without anything taken away' came the financial meaning of a total amount before deductions, the opposite of net. The commercial sense of 'twelve dozen' (a great or large quantity) arose from the French phrase grosse douzaine, literally a 'big dozen'. The modern slang meaning of 'disgusting' is a much later development, popularised in twentieth-century American English from the older sense of 'coarse' or 'crude', and the single ess-then-double-ess spelling reflects the French gros with an English -s added.

How the word is built

• gross (a single root from Latin grossus 'thick, coarse'; the various modern senses all branch from this one form)