grizzly
Americannoun
plural
grizzlies-
a device for screening ore, consisting of a row of iron or steel bars.
adjective
noun
Usage
Grizzly is sometimes wrongly used where grisly is meant: a grisly (not grizzly ) murder
Etymology
Origin of grizzly
Explanation
A grizzly is a large North American species of bear also known as a silvertip bear. When you go camping and hiking in the western United States, park rangers might teach you what to do if you see a grizzly. The grizzly bear's formal Latin name, Ursus arctos horribilis, came from confusion between grizzly and grisly, or "horrible." Grizzly bears are known for being solitary and having brown fur tipped in white or gray. The adjective grizzly probably arose from these "grizzled" or gray-colored hairs, since it describes appearing aged or old, especially because of graying hair.
Vocabulary lists containing grizzly
Name On: Pro Sports Team Names, Part 1
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Commonly Confused Words, List 3
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Commonly Confused Words, List 5
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The freshly minted Grizzly pack is roaming southern Plumas County and consists of at least two adults and a pup, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reported this week.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 18, 2025
The members of Grizzly Bear gathered earlier this year for eight days in a windowless soundstage deep in the Valley to rehearse.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 11, 2025
If Grizzly Bear’s early years were about convergence — four young men building a sound that felt both communal and claustrophobic, this chapter is about calibration: finding equilibrium after a long season apart.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 11, 2025
It has been eight years since Grizzly Bear’s last album, 2017’s “Painted Ruins.”
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 11, 2025
How about Grizzly Bears Don’t Fly Airplanes for the lines of the bass clef, or Empty Garbage Before Dad Flips or Elephants Get Big Dirty Feet for the lines of the treble clef?
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
