grits
/ɡɹɪts/noun, verb
grits is spelled G-R-I-T-S: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,549th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, grits means “Coarsely ground hominy which is boiled and eaten, primarily in the Southern United States” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in grits?
| Letters | 5: G-R-I-T-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 31,549th 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 grits?
Grits appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,549th 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 grits?
- /ɡɹɪts/
Grits 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-us-grits.oga, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with grits?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as grits.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: grist.
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).
What does grits mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
plural of grit ('hulled oats'); groats.
- 2
Coarsely ground hominy which is boiled and eaten, primarily in the Southern United States.
- 3
plural of grit
verb
- 1
third-person singular simple present indicative of grit
noun
- 1
plural of Grit
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Grits in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense coarsely ground corn:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | gruau de maïs |
| German | Maisgrieß, Polenta |
| Portuguese | canjica |
| Spanish | sémola de maíz, sémola maicera, chuchoca, gachas, poleadas, puches |
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 grits come from?
See grit (Etymology 2, “hulled oats”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).