English

Verb

grok ‎(third-person singular simple present groks, present participle grokking, simple past and past participle grokked)

1. (transitive, slang) To understand (something) intuitively.
2. To know (something) without having to think intellectually (such as knowing the number of objects in a collection without needing to count them: see subitize).
   • 1961, Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, page 107:

     I do not grok all fullness of what I read. In the history written by Master William Shakespeare I found myself full of happiness at the death of Romeo. Then I read on and learned that he had discorporated too soon – or so I thought I grokked. Why?

   • 1968, Wolfe, Tom, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, ISBN 9780553380644:

     Grok―and then it's clear, without anybody having to say it.

   • 2008 Dec, Leslie Anthony, “Running from Babylon”, in Skiing, volume 61, number 4, page 116:

     He freely plucks notions and verbiage from science fiction to describe everything from mountain-related undertakings to political subterfuge – like "grok", a term from Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, to denote intuitive understanding.

3. (transitive, slang) To fully and completely understand something in all of its details and intricacies.

   He groks Perl.

   I find it exceedingly doubtful that any person groks quantum mechanics.

   • 2008 August, Stanley Bing, “New Help for Hodads”, in Fortune, volume 158, number 3, page 152:

     Today we take a few moments to help you grok some of the ways that victims of TU can up their hipness – if we may use that term without being considered old school.

Usage notes

• Grok is used mainly by the geek subculture, though it was heavily used by the counterculture of the 1960s, as evidenced by its repeated appearance in Tom Wolfe's “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”

Translations

See also

• grok on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Heinlein Society