grasp
noun · verb
Simple meaning
Understanding of the nature or meaning or quality or magnitude of something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
graspIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡɹæsp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
Understanding of the nature or meaning or quality or magnitude of something
“He has a good grasp of accounting practices.”
An intellectual hold or understanding
That which is accessible; that which is within one's reach or ability.
verb
To understand.
To grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand.
To take advantage of something, to seize, to jump at a chance.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To grip; to take hold, particularly with the hand.
Used this way, grasp is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- savvy , more casual, better suited to speech than writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use grasp
- “He has a good grasp of accounting practices.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Understanding with difficulty.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to understand
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.