Definitions
Wiktionary
- n. A spiral-shaped graphic used to indicate swearing in comic strips.
- n. A string of typographical symbols, especially "@#$%&!", used (especially in comic strips) to represent an obscenity or swearword.
- n. A series of violence related images in a speech bubble to represent obscenity or swearwords
Etymologies
- Apparently coined by American cartoonist Mort Walker circa 1964. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Mort Walker created Beetle Bailey and coined the word grawlix.”
“[1] Courtesy grawlix, I can spell the word just fine.”
“In writing, there's the ever-handy grawlix -- that jumble of”
“Why does this character have a grawlix sewn into his shirt?”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘grawlix’.
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nouns
enfleurage, fautor, mafia, haslet, chopine, sea-gate, cantillation, formicary, go-devil, Gongorism, mamzer, mazarine and 147 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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NTDW2
yawp, amidships, smug, jounce, fallow, conscionable, polyp, whit, nouveau riche, palatial, encomiastic, exchequer and 182 more...
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Clever Words
Cool words to work into a chat ...
luftmensch, karoshi, sunglade, moonwake, afterwit, grawlix, blinkenlights, blinkenlight, somewhen, twoth, coolth, overmorrow and 4 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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jeffreytwhitney's list
abecedarian, assonance, prolix, avuncular, baleful, borborygmus, accismus, atavism, catachresis, coruscant, callipygian, carbuncle and 117 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 491 more...
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ecbrenner's list
flatline, luddism, apocalipstick, muttsucker, leviathan of fore..., flint, coryphaeus, donnybrook, bandwidth, bagpipe the mizen, cheesed off, asterism and 525 more...
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i heart words
autarkic, cline, aver, limn, gossamer, ochre, fulminate, twee, augur, mollify, maw, ecumenical and 113 more...
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good ones
grumble, fumble, bumble, stumble, crumble, mumble, jumble, humble, bramble, scramble, amble, ramble and 191 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1459 more...
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kewpid's Words
moleskine, araldite, dessicate, cellar door, grotesque, fallacy, vendetta, raindrop, panacea, ethereal, hircus, treppenwitz and 446 more...
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Just Plain Weird.
Something about these words doesn't look or feel right. And yet... they're strangely appealing.
pumpkin, platypus, atlatl, pterodactyl, octopus, veldt, asparagus, aspic, lacquer, mastiff, weevil, lapis and 156 more...
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...:::bella:::...
originally started as an attempt to collect words I found visually and auditorially beautiful, as well as psychically evocative, this has become nothing more than a grab bag of word curiosities, a ...
bergamot, jambalaya, bee's knees, heliotrope, hosanna, gamboge, aureole, filial, madrigal, multilingual, sacrosanct, sojourn and 1072 more...
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Words to have topped the "most wordie...
confelicity, bristol stool scale, blatteroon, toejam, serendipity, oubliette, crepuscular, honeysuckle, mellifluous, sesquipedalian, flaberkin, magnanimous and 141 more...
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Pop Culture
Comic strip character names and words, along with modern slang oddities.
rowrbazzle, pogo, rhinocerwurst, bitchin', cowabunga, joe btfsplk, churchy la femme, howland owl, porky pine, miss mamselle hep..., shmoo, unobtanium and 390 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for grawlix.

oroboros After a certain age... May 27, 2010
reesetee Haha! Excellent! Mar 29, 2010
oroboros AsteriskMan - Grawlix Translator Mar 28, 2010
chained_bear *hopes kmohnkern starts visiting more often* Jul 10, 2009
kmohnkern Reesetee, the page I linked to four months ago (sorry - I'm not a frequent visitor here) mentions Mort Walker's Private Scrapbook, but in the actual A Way With Words show Martha Barnette says that Mort Walker includes "grawlix" in his "Lexicon of Comicana." Then Grant Barrett says that Walker borrowed the word from Charlie Rice. (Grant also pluralizes it as "grawlixes.") Jul 10, 2009
jeffrey.t.whitney mother-@*#$!@#!!! Jun 11, 2009
yarb He was surely brought up on Mickey Mouse and Porky Pig. He falsettoes in fright, as they do; he zips; he squeals to a halt; he varoo-ooms; he tsks; he thonks. His thonks are worthy of the three Stooges. He does all the Popeye voices, but prefers Olive Oyl's. He has noises for the nittles, the grawlix, the quimps, the jarns. He blows each balloon up before your ears. He reels home, +'s on his eyes, singing the spirl that rises like heat from his head.
- William Gass, The Tunnel May 11, 2009
reesetee Kmohnkern, the text of your linked page also seems to say that Mort Walker coined the word (5th paragraph from the bottom). Am I missing something? Mar 2, 2009
kmohnkern According the A Way with Words, it was Charlie Rice who coined the word. Mar 2, 2009
avivamagnolia Grawlix, Illustrated Graphically for You! Jan 17, 2009
avivamagnolia grawlix (plural grawlixes or grawlix):
Spiral-shaped graphic used to indicate swearing in comic strips.
Also, a string of typographical symbols used (especially in comic strips) to represent an obscenity or swearword. You've seen this stuff a million times: &@$&@!!!
"He does all the Popeye voices, but prefers Olive Oyl's. He has noises for the nittles, the grawlix, the quimps, the jarns. He blows each balloon up before your ears. He reels home, +'s on his eyes, singing the spirl that rises like heat from his head." ~1995, William H. Gass, The Tunnel, p.159 Jan 17, 2009
avivamagnolia Coined by American cartoonist Mort Walker, creator of the Beetle Bailey strip. Jan 17, 2009
whichbe Grawlixes Past and Present Jul 30, 2008
reesetee Gotcha. :-) Jul 28, 2008
msiii @reesetee: Sure, no one's disputing that either. Never said I'd coin a new word. It appeared in several other wordies months ago, but without proper definition.
just want to keep it in my memory (=wordie) :) Jul 26, 2008
dontcry I love gravlox... Jul 22, 2008
reesetee Msiii, no one's disputing that (I don't think). But I believe Walker was the first to coin a word for them. :-) Jul 22, 2008
alohawildcat I thought it was a distant cousin to gravlox. Jul 22, 2008
msiii DEF: The use of random non-alphabet characters as one word to indicate cursing? It’s a universally understood device, and is applied in both graphic and textual settings. Jul 17, 2008
vanishedone Maybe if you Latinised it as 'graulix, graulicis'... Apr 22, 2008
reesetee Not according to the inventor of the word, Mort Walker. He called them grawlixes in the plural. :-) Apr 22, 2008
rolig Wouldn't the plural be grawlices? Apr 22, 2008
whichbe $%#$%%$ #$@#$@#$ ^&$^# %#)(@#$ #$)(% @#$#@$@ %$^#$!#@$ @ @#$@#$@#$ #@$@#$#@$@ Aug 17, 2007