Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. Slang To understand profoundly through intuition or empathy.
Wiktionary
- v. To have 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).
- v. To fully and completely understand something in all its details and intricacies.
WordNet 3.0
- v. get the meaning of something
Etymologies
- Coined by Robert A. Heinlein in his Stranger in a Strange Land.
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.”
The Huffington Post: R.W. Sanders: An Idiot And Infinite Wisdom
“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?
“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.”
“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
“An emblem of this book's influence: the word "grok"--Martian for complete, instinctive understanding--has entered the language and a dictionary or two.”
“... calling grok a friendly packaged zope is like calling a pirahna a friendly packaged shark.”
“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.”
“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.”
“When ET wrote, had to have all my medical and biology textbooks on hand in order to "grok" his postings.”
“But I think your use of "grok" is a misnomer, given that "understand" and "grok" are only superficially synonymous.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘grok’.
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WWF WTF?
Ever play "Words With Friends" with someone and they throw down some strange, unlikely group of letters that makes even the most mild and squeaky clean tongued person say "whiskey tango foxtrot"? ...
oorie, sangar, merl, cwm, doum, weir, jura, invar, lawine, tapa, waw, shog and 374 more...
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Unknown
coalition, cabinet, tweet, defuse, steep, ancestral, mindset, breach, infraction, egregious, curb, backbite and 280 more...
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Old words
recalcitrant, grok, Hiatus, shanghai, pervade, infuse, diffuse
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Literary Coinage
Wonderful words or phrases authors have invented
jabberwock, thumbfumble, zippicamiknicks, gryphoemia, ansible, gloomth, grok, mimsy, nymphet, smee, runcible spoon, centrifugal bumbl... and 40 more...
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edward ryklin's list
viewy, kibosh, snark, rostrum, flummox, ossuary, cosset, cacography, grok, tonsorial, postprandial, eschatology and 5 more...
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Competitive manufacturing
MSA41108 Certificate IV in Competitive manufacturing
kaizen, gemba, kanban, takt, otif, Heijunka, 5S, Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, Shitsuke and 14 more...
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CatSpringer's list
"Wordie.org"? How extemporaneous!
extemporaneous, grok, kipple, liminal, wrought, perspicacity
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Immortal_Yawn's list
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Neologisms
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[Open] Scientifictional
Some of these make no sense outside of a fictional context (e.g., “ansible”); some have graduated to reality (“robot”); a few have been adopted into the vernacular with their meanings almost intact...
grok, luminiferous aether, tachyon, quadro-triticale, Stanford torus
Herkovic Coined by Robert Heinlein in Stranger in a Strange Land, grok originally connoted consumption or sustenance as well as connection. Jun 9, 2009
catspringer A word that has perfect meaning and so easy to say! I grok "grok". Mar 2, 2009
jmjarmstrong JM saw the word ‘grok’ and instantly understood Feb 19, 2009
bilby "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. Dec 31, 2007
arby OMG these people scare me. Oct 5, 2007
cydonian quepol, perhaps you don't, ah, grok Wordie sufficiently. Sep 13, 2007
quepol 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"! Sep 13, 2007
arby 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
bkerr Grokking grok: http://www.aprendizdetodo.com/language/?item=20070330 Apr 15, 2007
reesetee Yuck. Ditto, u. Apr 13, 2007
uselessness 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. Apr 13, 2007
seanahan At its simplest, it means to eat, so the observed actually become part of observer. Dec 6, 2006
born2badored Grok means to understand so throughly that the observer becomes part of that wich is observed Dec 6, 2006
seanahan When I have the time, I'll post some good stuff on grok from "Stranger in a Strange Land". Dec 3, 2006