Word.ws English Dictionary

Gradgrind

Gradgrind noun: one who relies solely on scientific measurements and observable facts without taking human nature into consideration.

Noun

Gradgrind (plural Gradgrinds)

  1. One who relies solely on scientific measurements and observable facts without taking human nature into consideration.
    • They do just what all the practical men of this practical age are doing, what even the Gradgrinds are doing: they embody ideas; they put thoughts into facts.1860 June, “Representative Art”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 5, number 32
    • “I was purring. I'm a Gradgrind—it's quite right—anything you can say about Herbert Spencer, vivisectors, materialistic Science or Atheists, applies without correction to me. […]”1905, H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia

Forms of Gradgrind

pluralGradgrinds

Origin of Gradgrind

From Thomas Gradgrind, a pedantic teacher in Charles Dickens' Hard Times (1854).

Words formed from Gradgrind

Questions about Gradgrind

What does Gradgrind mean?
Gradgrind means one who relies solely on scientific measurements and observable facts without taking human nature into consideration.
What part of speech is Gradgrind?
Gradgrind is a noun.
What is the plural of Gradgrind?
The plural of Gradgrind is Gradgrinds.

Words near Gradgrind in the dictionary

  1. gradeschooler
  2. gradeschoolers
  3. gradewide
  4. gradge
  5. gradges
  6. Gradgrind
  7. Gradgrindery
  8. Gradgrindian
  9. Gradgrindish
  10. Gradgrindism
  11. Gradgrinds

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Gradgrind (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Gradgrind.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gradgrind. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.