gnarly

American  

[nahr-lee] / ˈnɑr li /

adjective

gnarlier, gnarliest

1. twisted with or as if with gnarls or knots; gnarled.

   long and gnarly fingers.

2. Slang. distasteful or distressing; offensive; gross.

   a comic noted for his gnarly humor.

3. Slang. excellent; wonderful.

   The live album has some gnarly guitar riffs and sweet bass lines.

4. Slang. difficult or dangerous.

   the gnarly surf.

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gnarly British  

/ ˈnɑːlɪ /

adjective

1. another word for gnarled

2. informal good; great

3. slang surfing difficult and dangerous

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Other Word Forms

• gnarliness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of gnarly

First recorded in 1820–30; gnarl ¹ + -y ¹

Explanation

Something gnarly is twisted, knotty, or bent, like the gnarly branches of an old apple tree or the gnarly fingers of an elderly person. "Gnarled and knotted" is the original meaning of this adjective, from the Middle English knar, "knob, knot, or mass." Confusingly, though, it's just as commonly used in two other (completely opposite) ways, to mean both "difficult" and "wonderful." In the 1970s, North American surfers adopted gnarly into their slang to describe a huge, dangerous wave. Later it came to mean "awesome," as in: "Listen to this gnarly guitar solo!"

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

gnarly gnarlier gnarliest

The landscape was rugged and swampy, filled with insects and dense vegetation that Osinski described as "deep, twisty, gnarly vegetation."

From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026

Preparing for a gnarly thunderstorm that would probably wipe out our power?

From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026

While pandemic skating became more popular, so did some pretty gnarly injuries.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2026

A gnarly debate at the center of modern AI research boils down to this: Can a system modeled on the human nervous system ever actually match a human’s abilities?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

He dropped to his knees beside a big oak and dug carefully with his shovel, pulling up a gnarly root.

From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam

These intimations of mortality, which I wouldn’t have minded hearing about in even gnarlier detail, suggest cracks in Barbie’s psyche, but also in Barbie Land’s very foundations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2023

Yet it is getting nastier and gnarlier out there.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 31, 2019

Lyonne, 38, has a weird ability to grow more appealing the gnarlier her character and surroundings get.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 6, 2017

On the heels of the last verse, King takes another guitar solo, this one gnarlier and more flamboyant than the last, with scalding 16th-note runs nestled against what is now an avalanche of female screams.

From Slate ● May 15, 2015

And so Ms. Hynes is perhaps the ideal person to remind the world about Tom Murphy, the spiritual forebear of this younger, gnarlier cohort.

From New York Times ● Jun. 29, 2012

That’s when she braves the sport’s gnarliest crashes to master tricks so dangerous that her opponents won’t even dare to attempt them.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 11, 2026

“In contrast, this year has so much death metal in the basement. This is the gnarliest Barboza we’ve ever had.”

From Seattle Times ● May 3, 2024

All went well up to day 13 of 16, when the group of rafters approached Lava Falls, “the gnarliest rapid I’ve ever navigated” and one you can’t avoid by portaging.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2023

There was a full-page ad in The New York Times that took all the products in the category and listed all the gnarliest ingredients and said, “This is what’s in plant-based meat.”

From New York Times ● Aug. 27, 2021

Professional surfers live a nomadic, unusual lifestyle; the very best trot across the globe in search of the gnarliest waves.

From Washington Post