grok

Meaning

1. (slang) To understand (something) intuitively, to know (something) without having to think intellectually.
2. (slang) To fully and completely understand something in all of its details and intricacies.

Synonyms

apprehend

comprehend

savvy

grasp

compass

🧭

dig

get the picture

understand

pick things up

cotton on

get it

know

notice

realise

see

👀

twig

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɡɹɒk/

Etymology

Coined by American author and aeronautical engineer Robert A. Heinlein in 1961 in his novel Stranger in a Strange Land. Heinlein invented the word for his fictitious Martian language. It is described as meaning “to drink” and, figuratively, “to drink in all available aspects of reality”, “to become one with the observed”. William Tenn later asked Heinlein if it could have been inspired by the term griggo, which featured in Tenn's 1949 Venus and the Seven Sexes; Heinlein “looked startled, then thought about it for a long time (and) shrugged, (saying) ‘It's possible, very possible.’”