granular

Etymology

It is from Late Latin grānulum (“a little grain, granule”) with the English suffix -ar,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} the Latin word being the diminutive of grānum (“grain, seed”).^[2][3] The Shorter Oxford and Dictionary.com describe it as formed from granule and -ar.^[7][8] Etymonline traces grānum to the PIE root Proto-Indo-European *gre-no- (“grain”),^[3] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged relates it to corn.^[4] The adjective replaced granulous, which Etymonline dates to the late 14th century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Consisting of grains or granules: 1794, in R. J. Sulivan's View of Nature.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1790,^[3] Dictionary.com to 1785–95,^[8] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives an earlier first use, 1762.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was physical, of matter made up of grains.^[2] In the 1830s the word was used of a granulated surface or structure, especially of diseased tissue in pathology (1833), and of something that is itself a granule (1834);^[2] metallurgy has granular pearlite (1910).^[2] A newer figurative use describes data or analysis that is broken down into fine detail, or something made up of many separate parts.^[9][10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records it of a voice or sound that seems rough or impure.^[4]

Timeline

• 1794 – consisting of grains or granules.^[2]
• 1833 – having a granulated surface or structure, especially in pathology.^[2]
• 1834 – of the nature of a granule.^[2]
• 1910 – granular pearlite, in metallurgy.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Made up of, or seeming to be made up of, grains or granules: granular salt.^[10][4][9]
2. Having a grainy surface or texture: the granular finish of the tiles.^[10][4][2]
3. (biology) Containing granules; marked by granulation, as of tissue.^[9][4][2]
4. Very detailed, as a set of data; made up of many separate elements: a more granular breakdown of the costs.^[9][10]
5. Of a voice or sound, seeming rough or impure.^[4]

Word family

• granularity
• granularly
• intergranular
• multigranular
• nongranular
• subgranular

Related words

• coarse-grained
• fine-grained
• grain
• granulate
• granulation
• granule

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins