NITTY-GRITTY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does nitty-gritty mean? 

• NITTY-GRITTY (noun)
  The noun NITTY-GRITTY has 1 sense:

1. the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience

  Familiarity information: NITTY-GRITTY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NITTY-GRITTY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

center; centre; core; essence; gist; heart; heart and soul; inwardness; kernel; marrow; meat; nitty-gritty; nub; pith; substance; sum

Context example:

the nub of the story

Hypernyms ("nitty-gritty" is a kind of...):

cognitive content; content; mental object (the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "nitty-gritty"):

bare bones ((plural) the most basic facts or elements)

hypostasis ((metaphysics) essential nature or underlying reality)

haecceity; quiddity (the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other)

quintessence (the purest and most concentrated essence of something)

stuff (a critically important or characteristic component)