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.
indelicate, indecent, obscene, or vulgar.
gross remarks.
lacking in refinement, good manners, education, etc.; unrefined.
large, big, or bulky.
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.
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.
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
a unit of quantity equal to 12 dozen
the entire amount
the great majority
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.
See flagrant.
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Old French gros “large” (as noun, grosse “twelve dozen”), from Late Latin gross(us) “thick, coarse”
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.
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In the long run, SpaceX is targeting gross profit margins of 70% and net income margins of 45%, about 10 percentage points better than Alphabet on both metrics.
From Barron's • Jun. 5, 2026
Yet Britain’s gross domestic product per capita, which was 70% of that of the U.S. in 1970, has now declined to less than 60%.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026
By reducing the need for excessive household saving, hukou reform would increase consumption as a percentage of gross domestic product by 0.6 percentage point over five years, recent research from the International Monetary Fund argued.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 4, 2026
The fund’s gross expense ratio is 1.26%, but expenses are being limited to 1.24% at least until April 30, 2027.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 4, 2026
“Because ew. It gets so crowded and gross, especially during the summer.”
From "I Can Make This Promise" by Christine Day
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.
