gradgrind means one who relies solely on scientific measurements and observable facts without taking human nature into consideration. It carries an Arena rating of 1668, earned across 34 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, gradgrind ranks #169 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #366 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #4,623 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #4,959 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
Why “gradgrind” is a great word
GRADGRIND — [Noun] One who dogmatically insists on the exclusive authority of measurable facts, dismissing all subjective, emotional, or imaginative considerations as invalid. From the proper name Thomas Gradgrind, the pedantic, fact-obsessed school superintendent in Charles Dickens's novel Hard Times (1854). Unlike a pedant, who may fuss over any formal doctrine or grammatical minutiae, or a humanist, who centers on compassion and holistic experience, a Gradgrind is defined by a specifically utilitarian, dehumanizing worship of data. He is the relentless click of the factory tally-counter, the planner who reduces a vibrant city to traffic-flow diagrams, the educator who sees a child as a vessel for facts and not a wellspring of wonder—a philosophy that mistakes the map for the territory, and in doing so, renders the territory uninhabitable.
Etymology
From Thomas Gradgrind, a pedantic teacher in Charles Dickens' Hard Times (1854).
noun
- One who relies solely on scientific measurements and observable facts without taking human nature into consideration.e.g.“They do just what all the practical men of this practical age are doing, what even the Gradgrinds are doing: they embody ideas; they put thoughts into facts.” — 1860 June, “Representative Art”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 5, number 32:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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