grit
/ɡɹɪt/noun, verb
grit is spelled G-R-I-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, grit means “A collection of hard small materials, such as dirt, ground stone, debris from sandblasting or other such grinding, or swarf from metalworking” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of grit is grits.
How many letters and syllables are in grit?
| Letters | 4: G-R-I-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.7 times per million words; the 16,455th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is grit?
Grit appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce grit?
- /ɡɹɪt/
Grit has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-grit.ogg, En-us-grit.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with grit?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as grit.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: trig, girt.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of grit
- grits present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- gritting participle, present
- gritted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does grit mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A collection of hard small materials, such as dirt, ground stone, debris from sandblasting or other such grinding, or swarf from metalworking.
The flower beds were white with grit from sand blasting the flagstone walkways.
- 2
Sand or a sand–salt mixture spread on wet and, especially, icy roads and footpaths to improve traction.
- 3
Small, hard, inedible particles in food.
These cookies seem to have grit from nutshells in them.
- 4
A measure of the size of abrasive grains, such as those on sandpaper, and thus their relative coarseness or fineness; the smaller the number, the coarser the abrasive: thus, 60 is rough, 600 is fine, and 3000 is ultrafine.
I need a sheet of 100 grit sandpaper.
- 5
A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; gritstone. Also, a finer sharp-grained sandstone, e.g., grindstone grit.
- 6
Strength of mind; courage or fearlessness; fortitude.
That kid with the cast on his arm has the grit to play dodgeball.
- 7
Husked but unground oats.
- 8
Coarsely ground corn or hominy used as porridge.
grits and eggs
verb
- 1
To clench (one's teeth), particularly in reaction to pain or anger.
We had no choice but to grit our teeth and get on with it.
- 2
To cover with grit.
- 3
obsoleteTo give forth a grating sound, like sand under the feet; to grate; to grind.
noun
- 1
A member or supporter of the Liberal Party of Canada or one of its provincial wings (except for the Quebec provincial wing).
adjective
- 1
Of or belonging to the Liberal Party of Canada.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Grit in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | gravillon , cran , grincer |
| German | Splitt, Schotter, Streu, Grieß, Streumittel, Streugut |
| Portuguese | granalha , tenacidade, garra , grão |
| Spanish | arenilla , temple, agalla , apretar , grano , crujir |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does grit come from?
With early modern vowel shortening, from Middle English grete, griet, from Old English grēot, from Proto-West Germanic *greut, from Proto-Germanic *greutą. Compare grist.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).