gross
adjective
without deductions; total, as the amount of sales, salary, profit, etc., before taking deductions for expenses, taxes, or the like (opposed to net).
gross
1 American
[grohs]
/ groʊs /
adjective
-
grosser,
comparative
-
grossest
superlative
-
without deductions; total, as the amount of sales, salary, profit, etc., before taking deductions for expenses, taxes, or the like (opposed to net).
gross earnings;
gross sales.
-
a gross scoundrel.
-
flagrant and extreme.
gross injustice.
- Synonyms:
- grievous, heinous, outrageous, absolute, downright
-
indelicate, indecent, obscene, or vulgar.
gross remarks.
- Antonyms:
- decent
-
lacking in refinement, good manners, education, etc.; unrefined.
-
large, big, or bulky.
- Antonyms:
- small, diminutive
-
extremely or excessively fat.
-
of or concerning only the broadest or most general considerations, aspects, etc.
-
Slang. extremely objectionable, offensive, or disgusting.
He wore an outfit that was absolutely gross.
-
gross vegetation;
gross fog;
gross vapors.
noun
-
gross,
plural
-
grosses
plural
-
a group of 12 dozen, or 144, things. gro.
-
total income from sales, salary, etc., before any deductions (opposed to net).
-
Obsolete. the main body, bulk, or mass.
verb (used with object)
-
grosses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
grossed,
past participle, past
-
grossing
present participle
verb phrase
Gross
2
American
[grohs]
/ groʊs /
noun
gross
British
/ ɡrəʊs /
adjective
-
repellently or excessively fat or bulky
-
with no deductions for expenses, tax, etc; total Compare net 2
gross sales
gross income
-
(of personal qualities, tastes, etc) conspicuously coarse or vulgar
-
obviously or exceptionally culpable or wrong; flagrant
gross inefficiency
-
lacking in perception, sensitivity, or discrimination
gross judgments
-
(esp of vegetation) dense; thick; luxuriant
-
obsolete coarse in texture or quality
-
rare rude; uneducated; ignorant
interjection
noun
-
a unit of quantity equal to 12 dozen
-
-
the entire amount
-
the great majority
-
verb
gross
Cultural
Usage
What’s the difference between gross and net? In the context of finance and accounting, gross refers to the total amount before any deductions, while net refers to the final amount that remains after deductions have been made. Of course, gross and net are common words with many other meanings, but these senses of gross and net are used in the context of measuring something (especially money) that has been accumulated—profit, income, earnings, gains, etc. The amount described or referred to as gross is everything that has been taken in, not accounting for things like debts, deductions, and expenses. The amount described or referred to as net is how much you have left after you’ve subtracted anything that doesn’t count toward profit, like debts and expenses. In other words, net is basically gross minus whatever you owe or have spent. For this reason, net is always lower than gross. For example, let’s say you decide to sell cupcakes at a bake sale. You spend $15 on ingredients, and you have to rent a table for $5, which equals $20 in expenses. Good news, you make $50 in cupcake sales. Your gross is $50. Minus the $20 in expenses, your net is $30. You could say you grossed $50 and netted $30. To remember the difference, remember that a net sifts whatever goes into it so that only some remains. Here’s an example of gross and net used correctly in the same sentence. Example: For this quarter, gross income was $2 million, but $1. 25 million in expenses and outstanding debts resulted in a net of only $750,000. Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between gross and net.
Synonym Usage
See flagrant.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
grossnessnoun
-
overgrossnessnoun
-
outgrossverb (used with object)
-
overgrossadjective
-
ungrossadjective
-
grosslyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
grosssimple
-
grossessimple
-
have grossedperfect
-
has grossedperfect
-
am grossingprogressive
-
are grossingprogressive
-
is grossingprogressive
-
have been grossingperfect progressive
-
has been grossingperfect progressive
Past
-
grossedsimple
-
had grossedperfect
-
was grossingprogressive
-
were grossingprogressive
-
had been grossingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gross
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Old French gros “large” (as noun, grosse “twelve dozen”), from Late Latin gross(us) “thick, coarse”
Explanation
Get ready, because gross has a few different meanings. When something is gross, it's disgusting. The noun, a gross, is the complete amount (before expenses), and the verb "to gross" is to bring in money. Two things will tell you which meaning is the right one with a word like gross: the part of speech and the context. If you're talking about awful, sickening, vile things, you're looking at the adjective gross. If you're referring to, say, how much money a movie made, that's the noun gross; but remember, the gross is how much the movie made in total, not how much it cleared in profit after expenses (the net). As a noun, gross can also be a unit of measurement: if your teacher orders a gross of pencils, he'll get a shipment of 12 dozen. The verb to gross means to pull in money, as in: the bake sale grossed 30 dollar.
Vocabulary lists containing gross
More Negative Words to Describe a Person
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Economics
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"Principles of Business," Vocabulary from Chapter 2
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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:
In particular, the company is looking to attract TurboTax customers with adjusted gross incomes around $50,000, potentially with free offerings, in the hopes of eventually selling them other services, he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
The federal budget deficit is expected to reach $2.1 trillion in fiscal year 2026, or around 6% of gross domestic product, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
She also concluded that Attiah didn’t engage in gross misconduct.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
He sees that as a tailwind for Apple’s gross margin.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 21, 2026
By 1850, all doctors know the gross anatomy of the skeleton, internal organs, muscles, and, of course, the brain.
From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman
Gross domestic product in Canada could get trimmed by 0.3 percentage points, Oxford said.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
Her voice, a birdlike soprano with an animated trill, hadn’t changed much from her youth: “I sound like a little girl singing all these Lord-awful songs,” she told “Fresh Air’s” Terry Gross in 2001.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent from April to June compared with the first three months of the year, according to revised data from the statistics office Destatis.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
Gross national debt has increased $17 trillion since 2019.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
In a cramped dressing room, he stands between Tracey Krause and Carol Gross, the retired gym teacher, a close friend who volunteers at the school and takes every trip with Truman Drama.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
That way it would earn a healthy profit even if it grosses less than “Fast X.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2025
I worked a very early shift at Sony Pictures, pumping out film grosses seven days a week, and he managed a co-owned restaurant in Hollywood with a shift closing late at night.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 13, 2025
But this spring seems especially crammed, even though Broadway attendance still has not returned to prepandemic levels, and grosses were down 14 percent as of early March compared with the same period in 2020.
From New York Times ● Apr. 10, 2024
"A sweeping story about the ethical dilemma of nuclear weapons grosses $1bn?" he joked of the film, which admittedly hadn't sounded punter-friendly on paper.
From BBC ● Jan. 13, 2024
The thought of the false teeth currently chillin’ in their purple glitter container inside G’ma’s purse almost grosses Scoob out as much as the oysters.
From "Clean Getaway" by Nic Stone
While Lord Wynstowe fusses around measuring chins and noses, Charlie and Alice are concerned with the grosser features of the human body.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
In that vacuum, normal people were tuning out altogether, because the election seemed grosser and sadder by the minute.
From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2024
Tom Cruise always has the answer, though: the top grosser of the day was Top Gun: Maverick, which added about $6 million to its box office haul.
From The Verge ● Sep. 5, 2022
In fact, some of the best sunsets appear in the winter, when a damp wind can broom away the grosser air.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 18, 2022
“Even grosser if you know Mr. Meacham.”Abby shuddered, then pointed to an outcrop of rocks.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
Even though Coleman sometimes showcases customers’ grossest problems, he’s never heard from a client who was unhappy with a post.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
Judge Patrick Lynch KC told the former teacher that he had violated the trust placed in him "in the grossest manner".
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026
His book, "Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy," has become an Amazon bestseller because he's promoted by the grossest people on the internet.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2023
HBO Max just launched its rebrand in just about the grossest way possible, Sam Adams writes.
From Slate ● May 25, 2023
Then you’d see her performing surgery on the turkey, which was always the grossest thing in the world, shoving her hand up its butt and pulling out all the slime.
From "The Boy in the Black Suit" by Jason Reynolds
The movie grossed nearly $180m worldwide at the box office at the time.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
His movies have grossed roughly $5 billion worldwide.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
Oklo said it grossed around $307 million in its public debut and has since raised around $3.2 billion in stock sales.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
The horror flick, which hit theaters in May, was made in Los Angeles for a budget of $750,000 and has since grossed nearly $475 million worldwide.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
Then, grossed out by my efforts to educate a young mind, I sent him outside to play with the kids next door.
From "Liar, Liar" by Gary Paulsen
It is now Sony Picture's highest-ever grossing film, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
That film is currently the highest grossing film of the year, taking in more than $1bn.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
But “Stronger” returned dismal numbers at the box office, grossing just $7.7 million on a $30 million budget.
From Salon ● May 27, 2026
Director Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu” now ranks as the year’s third-highest grossing domestic opening, based on its Friday-Sunday ticket sales of $82 million, according to ticket tracker Comscore.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2026
I figured she was grossing me out as revenge for not eating her chicken dinner.
From "Three Little Words: A Memoir" by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
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.
