grim
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Dismal and gloomy, cold and forbidding.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
grimIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡɹɪm
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.
adjective
Dismal and gloomy, cold and forbidding.
Ghastly or sinister.
Rigid and unrelenting.
Disgusting; gross.
noun
(MLE, slang, probably a fashionable word around 2006, now dated) A promiscuous woman.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Dismal and gloomy, cold and forbidding.
Used this way, grim 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
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use grim
- “Life was grim in many northern industrial towns.”adjective
- “A grim castle overshadowed the village.”adjective
- “His grim determination enabled him to win.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Death personified as an old man or a skeleton with a scythe.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.