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  1. grok love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. Slang To understand profoundly through intuition or empathy.

Wiktionary

  1. v. 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).
  2. v. transitive, slang To fully and completely understand something in all its details and intricacies.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. get the meaning of something

Etymologies

  1. 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. (Wiktionary)
  2. Coined by Robert A. Heinlein in his Stranger in a Strange Land. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. understand

hyponyms (11)

Words that are more specific

  1. figure
  2. cotton on
  1. intuit
  2. get onto
  1. catch on
  2. get wise
  1. tumble
  2. twig
  1. digest
  2. get it
  1. latch on

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. Heinlein
  1. science fiction

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Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘grok’.

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Comments

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  • 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

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‘grok’ has been looked up 5715 times, loved by 20 people, added to 104 lists, commented on 14 times, and has a Scrabble score of 9.