grit

/ɡɹɪt/noun
Middle School
1

A collection of hard small materials, such as dirt, ground stone, debris from sandblasting or other such grinding, or swarf from metalworking.

2

Sand or a sand–salt mixture spread on wet and, especially, icy roads and footpaths to improve traction.

3

Small, hard, inedible particles in food.

4

A measure of the size of abrasive grains, such as those on sandpaper, and thus their relative coarseness or fineness; the smaller the number, the coarser the abrasive: thus, 60 is rough, 600 is fine, and 3000 is ultrafine.

5

A hard, coarse-grained siliceous sandstone; gritstone. Also, a finer sharp-grained sandstone, e.g., grindstone grit.

6

Strength of mind; courage or fearlessness; fortitude.

Sound Patterns & Rhymes

Rhymes

Words that share the same ending sound pattern

Alliteration

Words starting with the same consonant sound — used in poetry and prose to create rhythm, emphasis, and memorable phrasing (e.g. “Peter Piper picked”)

Assonance

Words sharing similar vowel sounds regardless of starting letter — creates internal melody in writing

Consonance

Words sharing similar consonant sound patterns — adds texture and cohesion to writing