gritty
adjective
Simple meaning
Intense and starkly realistic.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
griteeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɡɹɪti
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
filmliterature
Intense and starkly realistic; depicting harsh reality, especially violence.
Spirited; resolute; unyielding.
Containing sand or grit; consisting of grit; caused by grit; full of hard particles.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (film, literature) Intense and starkly realistic; depicting harsh reality, especially violence.
Used this way, gritty is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in literature or storytelling and personal or emotional discussion contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Literature/storytelling
- Personal/emotional discussion
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience.
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.