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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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Furthermore, the company needs to show a stabilization of Azure’s gross margins.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
Be it measured by box office gross or word of mouth buzz, popularity isn’t enough to define a classic.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
“It just feels like gross negligence,” said Rachel White, 31, at the site of the farmers market she manages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Greger testified that his former employer made between $10 million and $11 million in gross income between 2023 and 2025 from his music.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
We can’t leave food down there, or let it get too dusty or gross.
From "A Soft Place to Land" by Janae Marks
Gross profit increased to nearly 5.04 billion euros from 4.13 billion euros, generating a 54% margin that beat consensus and company guidance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Gross margin, a measure of profitability on sales, narrowed to 54.2% from 54.7%.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026
Idealab founder Bill Gross said he embraced the concept as an alternative to the tiny home formula of extremely low-cost structures lacking amenities but requiring tens of thousands of dollars in installation and utility costs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
"When we deleted Mitch from the progenitor cells, we discovered that the environment created in these cells was not conducive to the synthesis of new fats," Gross explains.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 3, 2026
The elder Gross had been to a local chocolate maker.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
Today it is mostly flourishing: Broadway is among the country’s major tourist attractions, even if the mighty grosses logged by the big hits disguise the medium’s precarious finances.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
His six-location theater chain’s revenue projections for January and February were tracking ahead of 2024’s weak theatrical grosses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2025
It really needed a boost, because its grosses have been anemic — last week it grossed $288,102, which is unsustainably low for a Broadway musical.
From New York Times ● May 2, 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
The box-office standout of the summer season so far, “Top Gun: Maverick” has already become Tom Cruise’s biggest domestic grosser and blown audiences away with its aerial action sequences.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2022
Others were more recent and a lot grosser.
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
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
In a judicial attention economy, we have a lot of judges who all want the president’s solo attention waving their hands and saying: No, I am the grossest one of all!
From Slate ● Mar. 13, 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
This work we invest so much social capital in is, at the end of the day, the grossest of all.
From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2023
Probably the grossest, coolest thing I ever saw in my whole life.
From Absolutely Almost by Lisa Graff
Moviegoers were slow to return to multiplexes, and “Tenet” grossed just $58 million domestically.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
His last film, Oppenheimer, had just won seven Oscars and grossed around a billion dollars worldwide.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Shows for the top 100 tours in North America grossed a total of $1.9 billion, the same as last year, according to Pollstar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
Across the franchise’s lifetime, “Toy Story” has grossed more than $3 billion worldwide.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2026
If it weren’t for gutting fish on Sookie’s boat, I probably would have been more grossed out.
From "The Line Tender" by Kate Allen
Disney’s live-action version of its animated hit flopped at the box office this weekend, grossing an estimated $95 million globally.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Variety said it represents Focus Features' highest grossing film of all time and noted that it has now had four consecutive weekends above its "already-impressive $17 million debut."
From Barron's ● Jun. 14, 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
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone achieved huge success after it launched into cinemas in 2001 – making it the highest grossing film of that year.
From BBC ● May 6, 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.
