grizzly
Americannoun
-
grizzlies
plural
-
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
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
Yet in 1889, as a publicity stunt, he sent out a young San Francisco Examiner reporter, Allen Kelly, to bring him a live California grizzly bear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
And if we’re being honest, DiCaprio may have earned an Oscar for his performance in “The Revenant,” but he does not have the biceps to take on that CGI grizzly.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
In an accompanying statement, the groups argued the rule changes could immediately harm wildlife including Florida manatees, grizzly bears, salmon and steelhead fish, bird species like rufa red knots and golden-cheeked warblers, and insect pollinators.
From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026
Elliott, 29, recently bought a restored 1987 Defender in mint green for $76,000 that “drives like a grizzly, old truck.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
He remembered her coming out of the woods, saying that she’d given a mama grizzly bear directions.
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
Native Americans more or less cohabited peaceably with the grizzlies, each usually giving the other wide berth, at a mid-19th century ratio of about 10,000 California grizzlies to 130,000 native Americans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Today, federal wildlife officials estimate there are close to 2,000 grizzlies in the lower 48, concentrated primarily in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
“Everybody’s used to seeing grizzlies on TV catching salmon out of the air at the top of some waterfall, but black bears are one of the laziest animals on the planet,” he explains.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2025
Assuming bears couldn’t live outside the designated regions, the study estimates that California could house around 1,183 grizzlies: 115 in the Transverse Ranges, 832 in the Sierra Nevada, and 236 in the Northwest Forest.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2025
How do you feel safe when there are grizzlies in your midst?
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
Promotional artwork for season five seems to show a grizzlier Rick than we’ve seen before and, thus, probably some payout on the cliff hanger ending.
From Time ● Oct. 10, 2014
The bears ground the eagles with a swipe of the paw, and it only gets grizzlier from there.
From Slate ● Mar. 23, 2012
They hold to a notion of the individual that the grizzliest fur trapper west of the Missouri River 170 years ago would have found extreme.
From Salon ● May 26, 2013
Mated with the game's irresistible sweetness, the outcome is a game-world which is truly universal in its appeal – the youngest children and grizzliest hardcore gamers alike will be held equally rapt by its charms.
From The Guardian ● May 27, 2010
And when my father was a young man, somewhere up north of Sacramento, in a creek called Cache Slough, the tules was full of grizzliest He used to go in an' shoot 'em.
From The Valley of the Moon by Jack London
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.
