grok

English

Etymology

Coined by American author and aeronautical engineer Robert A. Heinlein in 1961 in his novel Stranger in a Strange Land. Heinlein invented the word for his fictitious Martian language. It is described as meaning “to drink” and, figuratively, “to drink in all available aspects of reality”, “to become one with the observed”. William Tenn later asked Heinlein if it could have been inspired by the term griggo, which featured in Tenn's 1949 Venus and the Seven Sexes; Heinlein “looked startled, then thought about it for a long time (and) shrugged, (saying) ‘It's possible, very possible.’”

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɒk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹɑk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒk

Verb

grok (third-person singular simple present groks, present participle grokking or groking, simple past and past participle grokked or groked)

1. (transitive, slang) To understand (something) intuitively, to know (something) without having to think intellectually.

   Troponym: subitize

   • 1961, Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, New York: Avon, →OCLC, page 106:

     I do not grok all fullness of what I read. In the history written by Master William Shakespeare I found myself full of happiness at the death of Romeo. Then I read on and learned that he had discorporated too soon – or so I thought I grokked. Why?

   • 1968, Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, →ISBN:

     Grok―and then it's clear, without anybody having to say it.