Meaning & use
gross
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparablefinancebusiness
Total, counted before anything such as tax or costs has been taken away.
Grammar: Usually comes before a noun: gross income.
Patterns
- gross income
- gross profit
Her gross salary is higher than the amount she actually takes home.
The company reported gross sales of two million dollars.
Gross weight includes the packaging.
adjectivecomparableinformal
Disgusting or unpleasant to see, smell or taste.
Grammar: Informal; can follow a linking verb: that smells gross.
Patterns
- gross to eat
There was something gross growing at the back of the fridge.
That is so gross, please close the bin.
The soup tasted gross, so I left it.
adjectivebefore a nounformal
Very obvious and serious, used for wrongdoing or mistakes that cannot be excused.
Grammar: Appears before nouns like negligence or misconduct.
Patterns
- gross negligence
- gross injustice
The nurse was dismissed for gross misconduct.
It was a gross error to ignore the warning.
The ruling was a gross injustice to the family.
Word forms
| comparative | grosser |
|---|---|
| superlative | grossest |
Common combinations
- gross income
- Your gross income is listed at the top of the form.
- gross profit
- Gross profit rose even though costs increased.
- gross negligence
- The firm was accused of gross negligence.
- gross domestic product
- The country's gross domestic product grew by two percent.
- gross misconduct
- Stealing from a customer counts as gross misconduct.
Synonyms and how they differ
- total
- Total simply means complete, while gross specifically means before deductions.
- disgusting
- Disgusting is stronger and more widely accepted in formal writing than the casual gross.
- flagrant
- Flagrant stresses that wrongdoing is done openly, whereas gross stresses how serious it is.
- revolting
- Revolting suggests a stronger physical reaction than the milder gross.
Opposites
Word family
- grossly adverb
- to an extreme and unacceptable degree
- grossness noun
- the quality of being disgusting or offensive
- gross out phrasal verb
- to disgust someone
- gross-out adjective
- intended to disgust, as in a gross-out comedy
Commonly confused: gross or net?
gross vs net
Net is the amount left after deductions, the opposite of gross when talking about money.
Practice
Her ____ pay was 3,000 dollars a month, but after tax she received less.
Choose one answer.
Gross pay is the amount before deductions. Net pay would be the smaller amount after tax, so it does not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “gross”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.