grosso modo

See also: grossomodo

English

Etymology

From Latin grossō modō.

Adverb

grosso modo (comparative more grosso modo, superlative most grosso modo)

1. roughly, circa or approximately
   • 1980. Henry Mehlberg, Robert Sonné Cohen. Time, Causality, and the Quantum Theory: Studies in the Philosophy of Science. p. 211.

     The fact that event B takes place in the interval separating events A and C has an invariant significance, which may be expressed grosso modo by saying that events which are closer together have more effects in common.

   • 1985. Edward W. Said. Orientalism Reconsidered. Cultural Critique, 1, pp. 94-95.

     Still others criticize Orientalism for falsifying the nature of Islam: these are, grosso modo, the fundamentalists.

Translations

Translations

• Spanish: grosso modo (es)

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin grossō modō.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Adverb

grosso modo

1. roughly, circa or approximately

French

Alternative forms

• grosso-modo

Etymology

From Latin grossō modō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁo.so mo.do/

Adverb

grosso modo

1. roughly, circa, approximately

   Synonyms: à peu près, approximativement, environ

   • 1999, Anna Gavalda, “Permission”, in Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part, →ISBN:

     […] L'autre lui disait grosso modo que c'était pas la peine étant donné qu'il allait se trimballer son paquet d'emmerdements avec lui.

     […] He basically told him that there was no point since he'd just be taking all his problems with him.

Italian

Adverb

grosso modo

1. alternative form of grossomodo

Latin

Etymology

Adverbial locution, from grossus (“approximate”) + modus (“way, method”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈɡrɔs.soː ˈmɔ.doː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈɡrɔs.so ˈmɔː.do]

Adverb

grossō modō (not comparable)

1. roughly, circa, approximately
2. coarsely

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin grossō modō.

Adverb

grosso modo

1. roughly, circa or approximately

Derived terms

• a grosso modo
• de grosso modo
• em grosso modo

Further reading

• “grosso modo”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “grosso modo”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin grossō modō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɡɾosso ˈmodo/ [ˌɡɾos.so ˈmo.ð̞o]
• Syllabification: gros‧so mo‧do

Adverb

grosso modo

1. grosso modo

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:aproximadamente

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Derived terms

• a grosso modo

Further reading

• “grosso modo”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• Manuel Seco; Olimpia Andrés; Gabino Ramos (3 August 2023), “grosso modo”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA [BBVA Foundation]
• «grosso modo», no «a grosso modo» | FundéuRAEFundéuRAE