Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To understand profoundly through intuition or empathy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, slang To have or to have acquired an intuitive understanding of; to know (something) without having to think (such as knowing the number of objects in a collection without needing to count them: see subitize).
  • verb transitive, slang To fully and completely understand something in all its details and intricacies.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb get the meaning of something

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Coined by Robert A. Heinlein in his Stranger in a Strange Land.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Coined by Robert A. Heinlein in his novel Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) in which the word is described as being from the word for “to drink” and, figuratively, “to drink in all available aspects of reality”, “to become one with the observed” in Heinlein’s fictitious Martian language.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word grok.

Examples

  • For those of you who read Robert Heinlein, you will realize that I stole the term grok from his novel, Strangers In A Strange Land, which was practically required reading for hippies.

    R.W. Sanders: An Idiot And Infinite Wisdom R.W. Sanders 2011

  • For those of you who read Robert Heinlein, you will realize that I stole the term grok from his novel, Strangers In A Strange Land, which was practically required reading for hippies.

    R.W. Sanders: An Idiot And Infinite Wisdom R.W. Sanders 2011

  • A techi geek word, to grok is a coinage of science-fiction writer R.A. Heinlein, meaning to understand something thoroughly by having empathy with it.

    Women Grow Business » On Clients and Marketable Nuggets, an Entrepreneur Asks: What is Grok? 2009

  • I actually think that this is part of the secret of our success -- we write headlines like wire-service stringers, headlines that are meant to be easy to grok from a cluster of RSS links, search-results, and so on.

    Boing Boing 2007

  • But what is up with the word grok turning up in that article, and so many others lately?

    weapons of massdistraction › A Lot Of Ins, A Lot Of Outs, A Lot Of What-have-yous 2004

  • An emblem of this book's influence: the word "grok"--Martian for complete, instinctive understanding--has entered the language and a dictionary or two.

    Ron Moore's favorite SF books 2006

  • An emblem of this book's influence: the word "grok"--Martian for complete, instinctive understanding--has entered the language and a dictionary or two.

    Archive 2006-01-01 2006

  • ... calling grok a friendly packaged zope is like calling a pirahna a friendly packaged shark.

    Planet Python 2009

  • I might agree somewhat with whatever it is that you are trying to say if I could understand what it is you are trying to say, but unless you can fill out your thoughts into a cogent paragraph, I won't be able to 'grok' your thoughts.

    Making Sure The Workforce Gets The Message - NASA Watch 2008

  • What is interesting about this word choice is that I think the vast majority of Americans can follow what she is saying, but only a small percentage truly "grok" the meaning.

    What Sarah Palin Is Saying - Anil Dash 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • When I have the time, I'll post some good stuff on grok from "Stranger in a Strange Land".

    December 4, 2006

  • Grok means to understand so throughly that the observer becomes part of that wich is observed

    December 6, 2006

  • At its simplest, it means to eat, so the observed actually become part of observer.

    December 6, 2006

  • I can't stand this word. I love the concept, and it definitely needs a word attached to it... but grok? It sounds like cat scat.

    April 13, 2007

  • Yuck. Ditto, u.

    April 13, 2007

  • Grokking grok: http://www.aprendizdetodo.com/language/?item=20070330

    April 15, 2007

  • I got used to the unattractiveness of the word itself in the course of reading the book. Now I just love it.

    May 7, 2007

  • I'm amazed that I was only the 47th wordie to add this. Perhaps the crowd here is not as geeky as I expected. schadenfreude, however, has nearly 300 "followers"!

    September 13, 2007

  • quepol, perhaps you don't, ah, grok Wordie sufficiently.

    September 13, 2007

  • OMG these people scare me.

    October 5, 2007

  • "It was far too busy, as always; for years there had been fender-benders at this intersection, mostly caused by people who simply couldn't grok the idea of a four-way stop where everybody took turns, and just went bashing through instead."

    - 'The Dark Half', Stephen King.

    P.S. Grok is the ugliest word I can think of.

    December 31, 2007

  • JM saw the word ‘grok’ and instantly understood

    February 19, 2009

  • A word that has perfect meaning and so easy to say! I grok "grok".

    March 2, 2009

  • Coined by Robert Heinlein in Stranger in a Strange Land, grok originally connoted consumption or sustenance as well as connection.

    June 9, 2009