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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

gross.

remarkably great, big, vast in an often unpleasant way; (of behaviour) Highly or conspicuously offensive.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ɡɹəʊs/UK/ɡɹoʊs/US/ɡɹɔs/Philippines, nonstandard/ɡɹos/Scotland, dialectal
  1. remarkably great, big, vast in an often unpleasant way; (of behaviour) Highly or conspicuously offensive.

    a gross mistake; gross injustice; gross negligence; a gross insult
  2. Excluding any deductions; including all associated amounts.

    gross domestic product; gross income; gross weight
  3. Seen without a microscope (usually for a tissue or an organ); at a large scale; not detailed.

    gross anatomy
  4. Causing disgust.

    Australia · Canada · US · informal
    I threw up all over the bed. It was totally gross.
  5. Lacking refinement in behaviour or manner; offending a standard of morality.

  6. Lacking refinement; not of high quality.

  7. Dense, heavy.

  8. Heavy in proportion to one's height; having a lot of excess flesh.

  9. Difficult or impossible to see through.

    poetic
  10. Not sensitive in perception or feeling.

    archaic
  11. Easy to perceive.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English gros (“large, thick, full-bodied; coarse, unrefined, simple”), from Old French gros, from Latin grossus (“big, fat, thick”, in Late Latin also “coarse, rough”), of uncertain further origin but perhaps related to Proto-Celtic *brassos (“great, violent”).

noun/ɡɹəʊs/UK/ɡɹoʊs/US/ɡɹɔs/Philippines, nonstandard/ɡɹos/Scotland, dialectal
  1. Twelve dozen = 144.

    countable · uncountable
    We need to order three gross of torx screws for next week.
  2. The total amount (of goods, money, etc) before taxes, expenses, exceptions, tares, or similar deductions are subtracted.

    countable · uncountable
  3. The bulk; the mass.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English gros (“large, thick, full-bodied; coarse, unrefined, simple”), from Old French gros, from Latin grossus (“big, fat, thick”, in Late Latin also “coarse, rough”), of uncertain further origin but perhaps related to Proto-Celtic *brassos (“great, violent”).

verb/ɡɹəʊs/UK/ɡɹoʊs/US/ɡɹɔs/Philippines, nonstandard/ɡɹos/Scotland, dialectal
  1. To earn money, not including expenses.

    transitive
    The movie grossed three million on the first weekend.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English gros (“large, thick, full-bodied; coarse, unrefined, simple”), from Old French gros, from Latin grossus (“big, fat, thick”, in Late Latin also “coarse, rough”), of uncertain further origin but perhaps related to Proto-Celtic *brassos (“great, violent”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.