grok

UK/ˈɡɹɒk/US/ˈɡɹɑk/

grok verb: to understand (something) intuitively, to know (something) without having to think intellectually.

Verb

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

(slang, transitive) To understand (something) intuitively, to know (something) without having to think intellectually.
- 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?1961, Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, New York: Avon, →OCLC, page 106
- In his movie—right right right—and they all grok over that. Grok―and then it's clear, without anybody having to say it.1968, Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, →OCLC, page 147
(slang, transitive) To fully and completely understand something in all of its details and intricacies.
- I finally grok Perl.
- I find it exceedingly doubtful that any person groks quantum mechanics.

grok meaning in Bengali

grok in Bengali

সম্পূর্ণ ও স্বজ্ঞাতভাবে বোঝা

Examples of grok in a sentence

Because what he never managed to grok then was that the company he created was destined to become a template for all of humanity, the digital reflection of masses of people across the globe.2018 August 2, Kara Swisher, “The Expensive Education of Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley”, in New York Times:
Today we take a few moments to help you grok some of the ways that victims of TU can up their hipness – if we may use that term without being considered old school.2008 August, Stanley Bing, “New Help for Hodads”, in Fortune, volume 158, number 3, page 152:

Forms of grok

third-person singular present	groks
present participle	grokking
present participle	groking
past participle	grokked
past	grokked
past participle	groked
past	groked

Origin of grok

Coined ex nihilo by American author and 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 asked Heinlein if it could have been inspired by the term griggo, which featured in Tenn's "Venus and the Seven Sexes" (1949); Heinlein "looked startled, then thought about it for a long time (and) shrugged, (saying) 'It's possible, very possible.'"

Words formed from grok

Words that rhyme with grok

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about grok

What does grok mean?: Grok means to understand (something) intuitively, to know (something) without having to think intellectually.
What is grok in Bengali?: Grok in Bengali is সম্পূর্ণ ও স্বজ্ঞাতভাবে বোঝা. See Grok meaning in Bengali.
How do you use grok in a sentence?: Because what he never managed to grok then was that the company he created was destined to become a template for all of humanity, the digital reflection of masses of people across the globe.
What part of speech is grok?: Grok is a verb.
How do you pronounce grok?: Grok is pronounced /ˈɡɹɒk/ (UK).
What is the past tense of grok?: The past tense of grok is grokked.

Words near grok in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: grok (page history and authors); grok (Bengali Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-grok.ogg.

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