# Grok

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Neologism coined by Robert Heinlein

This article is about the word. For the software, see [Grok (chatbot)](/source/Grok_(chatbot)). For other uses, see [Grok (disambiguation)](/source/Grok_(disambiguation)).

"Grokking" redirects here; not to be confused with [Grokking (machine learning)](/source/Grokking_(machine_learning)).

***Grok*** ([/ˈɡrɒk/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English)) is a [neologism](/source/Neologism) coined by the American writer [Robert A. Heinlein](/source/Robert_A._Heinlein) in his 1961 [science fiction](/source/Science_fiction) novel *[Stranger in a Strange Land](/source/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land)*. The *[Oxford English Dictionary](/source/Oxford_English_Dictionary)* summarizes the meaning of *grok* as "to understand intuitively or by empathy, to establish rapport with", and "to empathize or communicate sympathetically (with); also, to experience enjoyment".[1] However, Heinlein's original concept, of a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet [Mars](/source/Mars), is far more nuanced.

The concept of *grok* has garnered significant critical scrutiny in the years after the book's initial publication. Critic Istvan Csicsery-Ronay Jr. observed in 2008 that "the book's major theme can be seen as an extended definition of the term".[2] The term and aspects of the underlying concept of the word also have become part of communities such as [computer science](/source/Computer_science).

## Etymology

Robert A. Heinlein [coined](/source/Neologism) the term *grok* in his 1961 novel *[Stranger in a Strange Land](/source/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land#Grok)* as a [Martian](/source/Martian) word that could not be defined in Earthling terms, but can be associated with various literal meanings such as "water", "to drink", "to relate", "life", or "to live", and that it had a much more profound figurative meaning that is difficult for terrestrial culture to understand because of the culture's assumption of a singular reality.[3]

According to the book, [drinking water](/source/Drinking) is a central focus on [Mars, where it is scarce](/source/Water_on_Mars). Martians use the merging of their bodies with water as a simple example or symbol of how two entities can combine to create a new reality greater than the sum of its parts. The water becomes part of the drinker, and the drinker part of the water. Both *grok* each other. Things that once had separate realities become entangled in the same experiences, goals, history, and purpose. Within the book, the statement of divine [immanence](/source/Immanence) verbalized among the main characters, "thou art God", is logically derived from the concept inherent in the term *grok*.[4][5]

Heinlein describes Martian words as "guttural" and "jarring". Martian speech is described as sounding "like a bullfrog fighting a cat". Accordingly, *grok* is generally pronounced as a guttural *gr* terminated by a sharp *k* with very little or no vowel sound (a narrow [IPA](/source/International_Phonetic_Alphabet) transcription might be [ɡɹ̩kʰ]).[6]

[William Tenn](/source/William_Tenn) suggests that when creating the word, Heinlein might have been influenced by Tenn's very similar concept of *griggo* that was introduced in Tenn's 1949 story *[Venus and the Seven Sexes](/source/Venus_and_the_Seven_Sexes)*. In his later afterword to the story, Tenn says Heinlein considered such influence "very possible".[7]

## Definitions

Critic David E. Wright Sr. points out that in the 1991 "uncut" edition of *Stranger in a Strange Land*, the word *grok* "was used first *without any explicit definition* on page 22" and continued to be used without being explicitly defined until page 253 (emphasis in original).[8] Characterizing the use on page 253 as Heinlein's first *"intentional definition"* of the word as simply, "to drink", Wright interprets that this defined use of the word is only as a metaphor, "much as English 'I see' often means the same as 'I understand'".[8] Critics have bridged this absence of explicit definition by citing passages from the book that they believe illustrate various meanings of the term. A selection of these passages follows:

*Grok* means "to understand", of course, but Dr. Mahmoud, who might be termed the leading Terran expert on Martians, explains that it also means, "to drink" and "a hundred other English words, words which we think of as antithetical concepts. 'Grok' means *all* of these. It means 'fear', it means 'love', it means 'hate' — proper hate, for by the Martian 'map' you cannot hate anything unless you grok it, understand it so thoroughly that you merge with it and it merges with you — then you can hate it. By hating yourself. But this implies that you love it, too, and cherish it and would not have it otherwise. Then you can *hate* — and (I think) Martian hate is an emotion so black that the nearest human equivalent could only be called mild distaste."[9]

The Martian Race had encountered the people of the fifth planet, *grokked them completely*, and had taken action; asteroid ruins were all that remained, save that the Martians continued to praise and cherish the people they had destroyed.[9]

*Grok* means "identically equal". The human cliché "This hurts me more than it does you" has a distinctly Martian flavor. The Martian seems to know instinctively what we learned painfully from modern physics, that observer acts with observed through the process of observation. *Grok* means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed — to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by philosophy, religion, and science and it means as little to us as color does to a blind man.[9][10]

All that *groks* is God.[11]

## Adoption and modern use

### In computer programmer culture

Uses of the word in the decades after the 1960s are more concentrated in [computer culture](/source/Cyberculture), such as an *[InfoWorld](/source/InfoWorld)* columnist in 1984 imagining a computer saying, "There isn't any software! Only different internal states of hardware. It's all hardware! It's a shame programmers don't grok that better."[12]

The [Jargon File](/source/Jargon_File), which describes itself as "The Hacker's Dictionary" and has been published under that name three times, puts *grok* in a programming context:[13][14]

When you claim to "grok" some knowledge or technique, you are asserting that you have not merely learned it in a detached instrumental way but that it has become part of you, part of your identity. For example, to say that you "know" [Lisp](/source/Lisp_(programming_language)) is simply to assert that you can code in it if necessary – but to say you "grok" Lisp is to claim that you have deeply entered the world-view and spirit of the language, with the implication that it has transformed your view of programming. Contrast [zen](/source/Zen), which is a similar supernatural understanding experienced as a single brief flash.

The entry existed in the very earliest forms of the Jargon File in the early 1980s.

The 2005 book *[Perl Best Practices](/source/Perl_Best_Practices)* defines *grok* as understanding a portion of computer code in a 'profound way'. It goes on to suggest that to *re-grok* code is to reload the intricacies of that portion of code into one's memory after some time has passed and all the details of it are no longer remembered. In that sense, *to grok* means to load everything into memory for immediate use. It is analogous to the way a processor [caches](/source/CPU_cache) memory for short term use, but the only implication by this reference was that it was something a human (or perhaps a Martian) would do.[15]

#### Examples of computer culture use

A typical tech use from the *Linux Bible* characterizes the [Unix](/source/Unix) [software development](/source/Software_development) philosophy as "one that can make your life a lot simpler once you grok the idea".[16]

The 1994 book, *[Cyberia](/source/Cyberia_(book))*, covers its use in this subculture extensively:[17]

This is all latter day usage, the original derivation was from an early text processing utility from so long ago that no one remembers but, grok was the output when it understood the file. [K](/source/Brian_Kernighan)&[R](/source/Dennis_Ritchie) would remember.

- The main web page for [cURL](/source/CURL), an open source tool and programming library, describes the function of cURL as "cURL groks URLs".[18]

- The [keystroke logging](/source/Keystroke_logging) software used by the NSA for its remote intelligence gathering operations is named GROK.[19]

- One of the most powerful parsing filters used in [Elasticsearch](/source/Elasticsearch) software's logstash component is named *grok*.[20]

- A reference book by Carey Bunks on the use of the GNU Image Manipulation Program is entitled *Grokking the GIMP*.[21]

- The generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by [xAI](/source/XAI_(company)) is named [Grok](/source/Grok_(chatbot))*.*[22]

### Counterculture uses

See also: [Counterculture of the 1960s](/source/Counterculture_of_the_1960s)

- [Tom Wolfe](/source/Tom_Wolfe), in his 1968 book *[The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test](/source/The_Electric_Kool-Aid_Acid_Test)*, describes a character's thoughts during an [acid trip](/source/Psychedelic_experience): "He looks down, two bare legs, a torso rising up at him and like he is just noticing them for the first time ... he has never seen any of this flesh before, this stranger. He groks over that ..."[23]

- In his counterculture [Volkswagen](/source/Volkswagen) repair manual, *How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot* (1969), dropout aerospace engineer [John Muir](/source/John_Muir_(engineer)) instructs prospective used VW buyers to "grok the car" before buying.[24]

- The word was used numerous times by [Robert Anton Wilson](/source/Robert_Anton_Wilson) in his works *[The Illuminatus! Trilogy](/source/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy)* and *[Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy](/source/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_Cat_Trilogy)*. For instance, in *The Eye in the Pyramid*, volume one of *Illuminatus*:[25]

I caught the references to Aristotle, the old man of the tribe with his unfortunate epistemological paresis, and also to that feisty little lady I always imagine is really the lost Anastasia, but I still didn’t grok. “What do you mean?” I asked (...)

- And in *The Trick Top Hat*, volume two of *Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy* by Wilson:[26]

Williams went on. "You've got to think of time ripples, as well as space ripples, to grok the quantum world..."

## See also

- [Speculative fiction portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Speculative_fiction)
- [Linguistics portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Linguistics)

- (in German) [Anschauung](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anschauung) – related "sense-perception" concept in [Kantian philosophy](/source/Kantianism)

- [Appropriation (sociology)](/source/Appropriation_(sociology)) – Assimilation of concepts into a governing framework

- [Being-in-the-world](/source/Being-in-the-world) – a term in the existentialist philosophy of [Martin Heidegger](/source/Martin_Heidegger), aimed at deconstructing the subject–object distinction

- [Grokking (machine learning)](/source/Grokking_(machine_learning)) – a transition to [generalization](/source/Generalization_(learning)) that occurs many training iterations after the [interpolation threshold](/source/Interpolation_threshold), after many iterations of seemingly little progress

- [Introjection vs assimilation](/source/Introjection#Fritz_and_Laura_Perls) in Fritz and Laura Perls' gestalt therapy – analogous to memorizing vs grokking

- [Knowledge by acquaintance](/source/Knowledge_by_acquaintance) and knowledge by description – a distinction in philosophy between familiarity with a person, place, or thing and knowledge of facts

- [Logos](/source/Logos) – a term in Western philosophy that has been used to describe various forms of knowledge and reasoning

- [Phenomenology (psychology)](/source/Phenomenology_(psychology)) – the study of subjective experience

- [Qi](/source/Qi) – Vital force in traditional Chinese philosophy

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-OED_1-0)** ["grok"](https://www.oed.com/search/dictionary/?q=grok). *[Oxford English Dictionary](/source/Oxford_English_Dictionary)*. 1989.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-CR_2-0)** Csicsery-Ronay Jr., Istvan (2008). [*The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction*](https://books.google.com/books?id=VQZtIqYCshEC&pg=PT67). Wesleyan University Press. p. 67. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-8195-6889-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8195-6889-2).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Joy, Surya (2021). ["Robert Heinlein's 'Stranger in a Strange Land': A Postmodern Study"](https://ijels.com/detail/robert-heinlein-s-stranger-in-a-strange-land-a-postmodern-study/). *International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences*. **6** (4): 243. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.22161/ijels.64.36](https://doi.org/10.22161%2Fijels.64.36). [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [2456-7620](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/2456-7620). Retrieved 18 October 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** [Garg, Anu](/source/Anu_Garg). ["grok"](https://wordsmith.org/words/grok1.html). *Wordsmith.org*. Retrieved 18 October 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["grok"](https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/grok). *Vocabulary.com*. Retrieved 18 October 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Shenoy, Gautham (14 April 2018). ["Brave New Words (or rather, a few more of them)"](https://archive.factordaily.com/brave-new-words-or-rather-a-few-more-of-them/). *[FactorDaily](/source/FactorDaily)*. Retrieved 18 October 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["What's a GRIGGO?"](https://griggo.org/). *griggo.org*. Retrieved 18 October 2024. In the 1949 short story "Venus and the Seven Sexes" by William Tenn, the author coined the term "griggo" as a Venusian basic sense describing "intuitive understanding". Tenn used "griggo" as both a noun and a verb in phrases such as "I griggoed his impatience." Over a decade later, acclaimed sci-fi author Robert Heinlein published his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land, which introduced the word "grok" with a similar meaning of deep, empathetic comprehension. Heinlein's "grok" became hugely influential in 1960s counter-culture and lexicon. When asked if he was inspired by Tenn's prior "griggo," Heinlein admitted "It's possible, very possible."

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Wright_8-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Wright_8-1) Wright Sr., David E. (April 2008). "Do Words Have Inherent Meaning?". *ETC: A Review of General Semantics*. Vol. 65, no. 2. Institute of General Semantics 42578827. pp. 177–190. [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [42578827](https://www.jstor.org/stable/42578827).

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-McGiveron_9-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-McGiveron_9-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-McGiveron_9-2) McGiveron, Rafeeq O. (2001). ["From Free Love to the Free-Fire Zone: Heinlein's Mars, 1939–1987"](https://www.proquest.com/openview/db0060c4efb1ebd6d786815404df56b1/1?pq-origsite=gscholar). *Extrapolation*. Vol. 42, no. 2. Kent State UP.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Singer_10-0)** Singer, Joseph William (November 1984). "The Player and the Cards: Nihilism and Legal Theory". *The Yale Law Journal*. Vol. 94, no. 1. pp. 1–70.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Berger_11-0)** Berger, Albert I. (March 1988). "Theories of History and Social Order in "Astounding Science Fiction"". *Science Fiction Studies*. **15** (1): 12–35. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1525/sfs.15.1.0012](https://doi.org/10.1525%2Fsfs.15.1.0012).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Doug Clapp (21 May 1984). ["The Sixth Generation"](https://books.google.com/books?id=uS4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA32). *Infoworld*. p. 32. Retrieved 4 January 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** ["grok"](https://www.catb.org/esr/jargon/html/G/grok.html). *[Jargon File](/source/Jargon_File)*. Retrieved 18 October 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** ["Jargon File version 2.7.1"](https://www.catb.org/esr/jargon/oldversions/jarg271.txt). *Jargon File*. 1 March 1991. Retrieved 18 October 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** [Conway, Damian](/source/Damian_Conway) (2005). *Perl Best Practices*. Sebastopol, California: [O'Reilly Media](/source/O'Reilly_Media). pp. 4–5. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-596-00173-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-596-00173-8).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-16)** Negus, Christopher (2005). *Linux Bible* (1st ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: [John Wiley & Sons](/source/John_Wiley_%26_Sons). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0764589741](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0764589741).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-17)** [Rushkoff, Douglas](/source/Douglas_Rushkoff) (1994). *Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Cyberspace*. San Francisco, California: [Harper San Francisco](/source/Harper_San_Francisco). [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780062510105](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780062510105).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-curl_18-0)** ["curl groks URLs"](http://curl.haxx.se/). *cURL*. Retrieved 9 September 2013.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-intercept_19-0)** [Ryan Gallagher](/source/Ryan_Gallagher); [Glenn Greenwald](/source/Glenn_Greenwald) (12 March 2014). ["How the NSA Plans to Infect 'Millions' of Computers with Malware"](https://theintercept.com/2014/03/12/nsa-plans-infect-millions-computers-malware/). *[The Intercept](/source/The_Intercept)*. Retrieved 23 May 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-20)** ["Grok filter plugin"](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/logstash/current/plugins-filters-grok.html). *[Elasticsearch](/source/Elasticsearch)*. Retrieved 18 October 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-21)** Bunks, Carey. ["Grokking the GIMP"](http://dev.cs.ovgu.de/tutorials/Grokking-the-GIMP-v1.0/). *Carey Bunks*. Retrieved 18 October 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-22)** ["Grok"](https://x.ai/grok). *x.ai*. Retrieved 9 January 2025.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-wolfe1968_23-0)** Tom Wolfe (1968). [*The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test*](https://books.google.com/books?id=9io09MPj55EC&q=%22He+groks+over+that%22). [Farrar, Straus and Giroux](/source/Farrar%2C_Straus_and_Giroux). p. 96. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-553-38064-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-553-38064-4).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-MuirGregg1971_24-0)** John Muir; Tosh Gregg (1971). [*How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive*](https://books.google.com/books?id=guPXAAAAMAAJ&q=grok). John Muir Publications. p. 16. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-912528-33-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-912528-33-5).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-25)** [Wilson, Robert Anton](/source/Robert_Anton_Wilson); [Shea, Robert Joseph](/source/Robert_Shea) (1984). *The Illuminatus! Trilogy Omnibus*. [Random House](/source/Random_House). p. 174. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780307569646](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780307569646).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-26)** Wilson, Robert Anton (1979). *Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy: "The Universe Next Door", "The Trick Top Hat", & "The Homing Pigeons"*. New York: [Dell Publishing](/source/Dell_Publishing). p. 242. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-440-50070-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-440-50070-2).

## External links

Look up ***[grok](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Special:Search/grok)*** in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

- ["Grok"](http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/G/grok.html). *The [Jargon File](/source/Jargon_File) (version 4.4.7)*. Retrieved 9 September 2013.

- [SF citations for grok](http://www.jessesword.com/sf/view/1646) gathered for the *[Oxford English Dictionary](/source/Oxford_English_Dictionary)* by [Jesse Sheidlower](/source/Jesse_Sheidlower) of the [Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction](/source/Historical_Dictionary_of_Science_Fiction)

- Lee, Charles (February 2002). ["Grok and the Vanguard of Science"](https://grokscience.wordpress.com/groks/). *Groks Science Radio Show and Podcast*. Retrieved 2 August 2022.

- ["grok"](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grok). *Merriam-Webster Dictionary*. Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Retrieved 2 August 2022.

- ["grok"](https://www.thefreedictionary.com/grokking). *The Free Dictionary*. Farlex, Incorporated. Retrieved 2 August 2022.

- [WikiQuote on *Stranger in a Strange Land*](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land) includes many uses of *grok*

v t e Robert A. Heinlein Bibliography Future History The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950) The Green Hills of Earth (1951) Revolt in 2100 (1953) Methuselah's Children (1958) Orphans of the Sky (1963) The Past Through Tomorrow (1967) Time Enough for Love (1973) The Notebooks of Lazarus Long (1978) World as Myth The Number of the Beast (1980) The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985) To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987) The Pursuit of the Pankera (2020) Scribner's juveniles Rocket Ship Galileo (1947) Space Cadet (1948) Red Planet (1949) Farmer in the Sky (1950) Between Planets (1951) The Rolling Stones (1952) Starman Jones (1953) The Star Beast (1954) Tunnel in the Sky (1955) Time for the Stars (1956) Citizen of the Galaxy (1957) Have Space Suit—Will Travel (1958) Other novels For Us, the Living: A Comedy of Customs (1939/2003) Beyond This Horizon (1948) Sixth Column (1949) The Puppet Masters (1951) Variable Star (1955/2006) Double Star (1956) The Door into Summer (1957) Starship Troopers (1959) Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) Podkayne of Mars (1963) Glory Road (1963) Farnham's Freehold (1964) The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966) I Will Fear No Evil (1970) Friday (1982) Job: A Comedy of Justice (1984) Collections The Robert Heinlein Omnibus (1958) The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag (1959) The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein (1966) Expanded Universe (1980) Requiem (1992) Non-fiction Take Back Your Government (1946/1992) Tramp Royale (1954/1992) Grumbles from the Grave (1989) Screenplays Destination Moon (1950) Project Moonbase (1953) Characters Delos D. Harriman Jubal Harshaw Maureen Johnson Andrew Jackson Libby Lazarus Long Hazel Stone Legacy Heinlein Centennial Heinlein Society Robert A. Heinlein Award Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization Related Virginia Heinlein The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana Tribbles Grok Heinlein crater, Mars 6312 Robheinlein, asteroid Film adaptations The Puppet Masters (1994) Starship Troopers (1997) Predestination (2014) The Door into Summer (2021)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Grok](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.