grin and bear it
"grin-and-bear-it" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“grin and bear it” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 16
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To endure a difficult or disagreeable situation with good humor.
Corpus desk
Index EN-grin-and-bear-it · grin and bear it · English
grin and bear it · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 16 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "G" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | grin and bear it |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 16 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “grin and bear it” in English
Rare enough to double-check
grin and bear it is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To endure a difficult or disagreeable situation with good humor.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for grin and bear it in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is grin and bear it, spelled G-R-I-N- -A-N-D- -B-E-A-R- -I-T.
Definition
- 1To endure a difficult or disagreeable situation with good humor.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how grin and bear it appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
They made me work the Saturday of our wedding anniversary; what could I say? I just had to grin and bear it.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.