grating

¹ American  

[grey-ting] / ˈgreɪ tɪŋ /

noun

1. a fixed frame of bars or the like covering an opening to exclude persons, animals, coarse material, or objects while admitting light, air, or fine material.

2. Physics. diffraction grating.

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grating ² American  

[grey-ting] / ˈgreɪ tɪŋ /

adjective

1. irritating or unpleasant to one's feelings.

2. (of a sound or noise) harsh, discordant, or rasping.

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grating ¹ British  

/ ˈɡreɪtɪŋ /

adjective

1. (of sounds) harsh and rasping

2. annoying; irritating

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noun

1. (often plural) something produced by grating

grating ² British  

/ ˈɡreɪtɪŋ /

noun

1. Also called: grate.  a framework of metal bars in the form of a grille set into a wall, pavement, etc, serving as a cover or guard but admitting air and sometimes light

2. short for diffraction grating

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Other Word Forms

• gratingly adverb

Etymology

Origin of grating¹

First recorded in 1605–15; grat(e) ¹ + -ing ¹

Origin of grating²

First recorded in 1555–65; grat(e) ² + -ing ²

Explanation

When something is grating, it's extremely harsh and irritating, like the grating sound of your alarm clock early on a Monday morning. As an adjective, grating is particularly good for describing unpleasant sounds, like the grating voice of someone who's nagging you. As a noun, a grating is an object in the shape of a grid, with parallel bars forming regular squares or rectangles. This kind of grating is often used as a cover for an opening, like the grating that covers a storm drain in the gutter or an exhaust fan in the ceiling.

Example Sentences

By engineering a subwavelength grating, they were able to trap infrared light within a layer only 40 nanometers thick.

From Science Daily • Apr. 5, 2026

This widens the gap with Grana Padano, a competitor with less stringent production rules, as well as other cheeses meant for grating.

From Barron's • Mar. 26, 2026

"There's a grating that keeps getting covered in leaves and branches, it's never getting emptied so water comes over the top and just floods straight through."

From BBC • Jan. 27, 2026

Special strainers for grating and juicing tomatoes gained a place among kitchen furnishings.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 24, 2025

Something beyond the grating and out of Taran’s vision swooped down and the blue eyes disappeared suddenly.

From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander