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Gritty comes from grit ("small hard granules"), which in turn derives, via Middle English, from an Old English word for "sand" or "gravel." Grit has been around since before the 12th century, but the first appearance of gritty in print in English was near the end of the 16th century, when it was used in the sense of "resembling or containing small hard granules." Grit entered American slang with the meaning "courage or persistence" in the early 19th century, and gritty followed suit with a corresponding "plucky" sense. By the 19th century's end, gritty was also being used to describe a literary style that was rough and coarse.
Examples of gritty in a Sentence
Pamela McClintock, HollywoodReporter, 12 Apr. 2025
The filmmaker got his first big-screen writing credit with his next directing effort, 1979’s gritty, funny and poignant North Dallas Forty, which starred Nick Nolte and Mac Davis as the aging stars of a fictional pro football team (cough-Dallas Cowboys-cough).
—Erik Pedersen, Deadline, 11 Apr. 2025
Marvel’s problems began in 2021 with the release of Black Widow, a gritty spy story starring Scarlett Johansson that might have been a box office success if it had been released before Endgame.
—Caroline Reid, Forbes.com, 6 Apr. 2025
Michigan State likes to get physical defensively, and Ole Miss will have to be prepared for a grittier game.
—Rohan Nadkarni, NBC news, 27 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for gritty
Cite this Entry
“Gritty.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gritty. Accessed 22 Apr. 2025.
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