grating

¹ American  

[grey-ting] / ˈgreɪ tɪŋ /

noun

• gratings
  plural

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

Derived Forms

• gratingly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• gratings
  plural

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

See Examples For:

grating gratings

The way AI talks to us is grating and disingenuous—and can even be harmful.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

The performance, perhaps intending to inject a note of potential menace, plays up Ru’s anger at the expense of his hurt — and comes off as grating and utterly unsympathetic.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

Working, after all, is how a majority of people must spend most of their waking hours, and toiling away in an industry or at a position you find grating will undoubtedly make you miserable.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 2026

As the interview progressed, Vance’s vaunted media savvy quickly morphed into something far more grating: a combination of condescension and profound insincerity.

From Salon ● Jun. 17, 2026

Their bodies worked rhythmically back and forth, and the sandstones produced a series of harsh, grating screeches that caused icy trickles to run down Ranofer’s spine and set his teeth to aching.

From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

He looked through the door and was able to see a grating sitting on top of other gratings - leaving a void with the North Sea below it.

From BBC ● May 18, 2026

The particles then traveled through three diffraction gratings generated by ultraviolet laser beams.

From Science Daily ● May 11, 2026

The material can expand by as much as 5%, allowing researchers to directly form optical structures such as microlenses and diffraction gratings on its surface.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 21, 2026

The lamprey ladder at Bonneville is an elaborate chute system with smooth surfaces lamprey can attach to, rounded corners, no gratings and places to rest.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 23, 2022

At one end of the cove, an enormous pileup of wreckage from years of storms provided a steady supply of firewood: block and tackle, hatch gratings, spars, masts, lockers.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong